^  i\\t  llteologta/  $ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


\ 


Purchased  by  the  Hamill  Missionary  Fund. 


BT  590  . E8  S635  1904 
Smith,  John,  1844-1905. 
The  magnetism  of  Christ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/magnetismofchris00smit_0 


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* - ** - - - • - T  -  - . 


THE 


MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

A  STUDY  OF  OUR  LORD’S 
MISSIONARY  METHODS 


REV.  JOHN  SMITH,  M.A. 


D.D. 


NEW  YORK:  A.  C.  ARMSTRONG  &  SON 
3  and  5  WEST  i 8th  STREET 


LONDON:  HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

l  904 


The  Duff  Lectures  on  Evangelistic  Theology , 
( United  Free  Church  of  Scotland) 
Session  1 903-4 


OUR  STUDENTS 


IN 


GLASGOW,  EDINBURGH,  AND  ABERDEEN 
WHOSE  RECEPTION 
OF  THIS  OCCASIONAL  SERVICE 
MADE  A  BURDEN 
A  JOY 


\ 


CONTENTS 

i 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY— THE  WORLD  INTO  WHICH  JESUS 

CAME  .......  i 

II 

METHODS 'OF  JESUS— THE  EARLIEST  MOVEMENTS 

OF  HIS  MINISTRY  .....  29 

III 

THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  .  .  57 

IV 

THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST  — HOW  HE  "DREW 

w 

MEN  TO  HIMSELF  .....  87 

V 

THE  LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  ,  ?  115 


Vlll 


CONTENTS 


VI 

PAGE 

THE  MINISTRIES  NORMAL  AND  EXCEPTIONAL  BY 

WHICH  HE  WOULD  ACCOMPLISH  HIS  WORK  .  145 

VII 

CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM  :  THE  AWAKENING  OF 

FAITH  .......  177 

VIII 

CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INDIVIDUAL  INQUIRERS  .  209 

IX 

CHRIST  MEETING  QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  241 

X 

CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  .  .  .  .269 

XI 

PRAYER  AS  BRINGING  IN  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  291 

XII 

.  i  e  ’ 

CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  AS  A  MOTIVE 

fOR  THE  PRESENT  .....  317 


INTRODUCTORY 

THE  WORLD  INTO  WHICH  JESUS  CAME 


A 


I 


INTRODUCTORY 

THE  WORLD  INTO  WHICH  JESUS  CAME 

In  entering  upon  the  occupation  of  this  Lecture¬ 
ship,  which  bears  the  honoured  name  of  the  late 
Dr  Duff  and  was  really  founded  by  him,  I  desire 
to  associate  myself  with  the  principles  which  in 
the  mind  of  this  great  missionary  leader  were  con¬ 
ceived  as  underlying  this  institution.  It  is  only 
the  fragment  of  a  wider  plan  which  has  not  yet 
been  realised.  Being  far  in  advance  of  his  time, 
and  discerning  nearly  forty  years  ago,  a  need 
which  is  becoming  generally  apparent  to-day,  he 
conceived  the  plan  of  a  Missionary  Institute,  of 
whose  manifold  activities  the  lecturer  on  Evange¬ 
listic  Theology  would  be  the  centre  and  head. 
He  contemplated  lay  students,  no  less  than  those 
who  were  qualifying  for  ordination,  being  trained 
especially  for  foreign  missionary  service,  and 
receiving  a  large  part  of  this  preparation  at  home 
before  going  out  to  their  various  fields. 

There  are  most  interesting  associations  of  this 
lectureship  with  the  life  of  the  great-hearted 


3 


4 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


founder,  and  with  the  history  of  the  former  Free 
Church,  which  are  worthy  of  being  mentioned. 
While  passing  through  the  theological  classes  in 
St  Andrews,  the  thought  occurred  to  Alexander 
Duff,  that,  to  quote  his  own  words,  “throughout 
the  whole  course  of  his  curriculum  of  four  years 
not  one  single  allusion  was  ever  made  to  the 
subject  of  the  world’s  evangelisation,  the  subject 
which  constitutes  the  chief  end  of  the  Church  on 
earth.”  Years  after,  when  the  tidings  of  the 
Disruption  travelled  out  to  India,  the  thought 
which  had  made  so  deep  and  even  painful  an 
impression  on  his  heart  in  student  days  revived. 
This  appeared  to  be  the  opportunity  for  which  he 
had  waited,  and  so  he  wrote  to  his  “noble  friend 
Dr  Gordon  ”  urging  his  plea,  “  that  as  the  Free 
Church  in  her  General  Assembly  had  started  as  a 
Missionary  Church,  her  new  college  should  start 
as  a  Missionary  College.” 

Not  until  twenty-three  years  after  the  Dis¬ 
ruption,  in  1866,  had  Dr  Duff  the  pleasure  of 
announcing  to  the  General  Assembly,  that  a  few 
generous  friends  of  missions  had  placed  in  his 
hands  the  sum  of  £10,000  as  an  endowment  for 
this  chair.  And  in  due  course — though  quite 
contrary  to  his  own  original  intention — he  was 
called  to  be  its  first  occupant,  as  Professor  of 
Evangelistic  Theology. 

In  the  small  volume  (published  in  1868,  Elliot, 


INTRODUCTORY 


5 


Edinburgh)  containing  his  Inaugural  Address — 
with  an  attractive  introduction — we  find  not  only 
the  interesting  particulars  which  I  have  mentioned, 
but  his  elaborate  sketch  of  the  subjects  and 
objects  of  the  chair.  He  is  successful  in  showing 
that  the  chair  has  a  distinctive  sphere  of  its  own. 
After  reviewing  the  subjects  of  the  other  chairs 
he  defines  the  subject  of  his  own  thus :  u  It  is 
Evangelic  Theology  viewed,  not  abstractly  or 
speculatively  as  a  science — but  actively  as  a 
militant  power,  in  its  constant  aggressive  aspect 
and  bearing  towards  spiritual  ignorance,  the  false 
religions  and  superstitions  of  all  peoples  and 
nations.”  And  again  in  referring  to  his  own 
conduct  of  the  chair,  Dr  Duff  says,  uat  all  events, 
one  thing  is  certain  that  while  I  continue  to 
occupy  the  chair,  it  will  be  my  constant  endeavour 
to  lose  no  opportunity  of  recommending  all  Evan¬ 
gelical  Missions — home  and  foreign,  whether  to  Jew 
or  Gentile — according  to  my  own  honest  conviction 
of  their  respective  magnitudes,  or  their  relative 
claims  based  on  general  or  specific  grounds.” 

These  last  sentences  have  been  of  service  to  me 
both  as  indicating  Dr  Duff’s  mind,  and  in  con¬ 
firming  my  own  judgment  as  to  the  right  course 
to  be  pursued.  In  his  mind  the  mission  of  the 
Church  was  one.  Home  and  foreign  were  but 
departments  of  one  great  evangelic  enterprise. 
And  respect  was  to  be  had  not  only  to  the 


6 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


relative  importance  of  these  departments  in  them¬ 
selves  but  also  to  the  special  exigencies  of  times 
and  seasons.  Being  parts  of  a  living  whole  they 
act  and  react  incessantly.  Home  Missions  have 
gained  a  wonderful  impetus  from  the  marvellous 
expansion  of  Foreign  Missions.  And  again  as  at 
the  present  hour,  we  are  compelled  to  feel  that 
the  crux  of  the  whole  problem  lies  at  home.  We 
must  strengthen  our  base  of  operations,  to  main¬ 
tain  our  outposts.  Unless  our  Church  can  face 
and  overpower  the  hostile  forces  at  her  door,  and 
become  a  more  pervasive  and  powerful  factor  at 
home,  there  must  be — as  was  the  case  with 
declining  Rome  in  relation  to  her  provinces — 
feebleness  and  shrinking  at  the  circumference  of 
her  missionary  activities. 

We  are  in  the  direct  line  of  the  originating  idea 
of  the  founder  of  this  chair  when  we  take  up,  in 
special  connection  with  Home  Mission  problems, 
the  principles  of  all  mission  activity,  as  they  are 
revealed  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 

One  last  reference  to  Dr  Duff  may  be  permitted 
in  order  to  point  out  that  he  specially  had  regard 
to  Home  Mission  operations  carried  on  through 
the  Church,  and  by  or  under  the  control  of  the 
ministry.  “The  twofold  function  of  a  minister 
in  this  nominally  Christian  land,  is,  as  an  evan¬ 
gelist,  to  seek  and  save  the  lost,  and  as  a  pastor, 
to  nourish  all  who  have  been  already  recovered 


INTRODUCTORY 


7 


and  tound,  in  that  holiness  of  heart  and  life, 
without  which  no  one  shall  see  the  Lord  in  glory.” 
And  then  the  great  orator  draws  a  sharp  character 
sketch  worthy  of  being  rescued  from  forgetfulness. 
“Many  ministers  there  have  been  and  still  are  of 
whom  it  may  be  truthfully  said,  that  they  seem  to 
be  converted  men — even,  in  their  own  way,  holy 
men,  but  men  who,  at  the  same  time,  unhappily 
carry  about  with  them  such  an  oppressive  load 
of  languor,  listlessness,  and  vis  inertiae ,  that  they 
can  only  bestir  themselves  as  they  are  bestirred. 
Ministers  are  there  who  live,  or  rather  exist  and 
vegetate,  in  very  peculiar  religious  hothouses  or 
greenhouses  of  their  own,  having  about  them  some  of 
the  verdant  hues  of  righteousness,  but  little  or  none 
of  its  nutritive  fruits,  and  who  seem  as  incapable  of 
conveying  any  portion  of  their  own  little  warmth 
or  feeble  vitality  to  dead  or  dying  souls  in  the 
world  without,  as  the  sickly  exotics  of  our  ordinary 
hothouses  or  greenhouses,  of  dispersing  heat  or 
animation  to  the  leafless,  sapless  trees,  shrubs,  and 
herbs  that  are  shivering  outside,  exposed  to  the 
fury  of  the  wintry  blasts.”  Without  raising  the 
question  whether  it  be  descriptive  of  the  present, 
this  is  a  telling  portrait  of  what  was  not  uncommon 
in  the  past.  And  then  the  man  of  God  bids  us 
pray  that  we  may  never  belong  “  to  this  nonde¬ 
script  order  of  a  simply  vegetating  ministry.” 

Addressing  those  who  are  preparing  for  the 


8 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


regular  ministry  of  the  Church,  our  aim  is  to 
speak,  not  immediately  of  their  preaching  and 
administration  and  pastoral  work  among  their  own 
people,  but  of  the  larger  ministry  to  which  they 
and  their  people  are  in  common  called.  No  church 
liveth  to  itself.  A  generating  centre  of  spiritual 
force,  a  church  is  to  be  judged  by  its  influence  on 
the  surrounding  world.  If  there  be  life  within, 
there  will  be  reflections  of  that  life  all  around.  A 
city  that  is  set  on  a  hill  cannot  be  hid.  Her 
people  must  reflect  the  ideals  to  which  they  are 
being  conformed.  Yea,  living  in  God  and  having 
the  Spirit  of  God  living  in  her,  each  spiritual 
community  must  discover  the  spirit  and  power  of 
the  Cross  reincarnated  in  her  renewed  lives.  Ye 
are  salt — antiseptic  and  stimulating  influences  to 
the  whole  world.  Ye  are  light,  by  the  light  divine 
beaming  afresh  in  specific  human  experiences, 
throwing  the  true  light  of  life  all  round. 

For  this  larger  ministry  I  am  bringing  to  you 
Jesus  as  your  perfect  example.  As  we  shall  see 
to-day  in  this  opening  lecture,  Jesus  laboured  in  as 
complex  a  situation  as  that  which  we  occupy. 
There  He  lived  and  toiled  as  a  home  missionary, 
grappling  with  existing  conditions,  as  we  shall  have. 
He  came  down  to  the  actual  facts  of  life  among  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men  in  his  own  land,  as  we 
shall  have  to  do  in  our  own  time.  But  more,  He  did 
this  immediate  bit  of  work  in  Jewry  with  His  eye 


INTRODUCTORY 


9 

on  the  future  and  the  whole  world.  These  were 
His  first  steps  towards  the  founding  of  a  kingdom 
in  His  sacrifice,  and  to  be  continued  within  those 
lines  to  the  end. 

Another  thought  is  of  importance.  Because  of 
His  personal  isolation  through  the  hostility  of  the 
Jewish  leaders  of  every  name,  Jesus  stood  free  to 
determine  from  within  the  lines  of  His  Kingdom. 
His  life  was  not  like  that  of  most  men,  a  com¬ 
promise  between  an  ideal  and  hard  unyielding 
circumstances.  What  importance  then  are  we  to 
attach  to  every  line  of  His  teaching  and  practice. 
My  aim  accordingly,  in  the  course  of  lectures  with 
which  I  am  charged,  is  to  deal  with  the  methods 
of  Jesus  in  approaching  and  attracting  men  ;  and 
that  we  might  get  close  to  Him  and,  without  the 
intervention  of  current  ideas,  as  far  as  such  a 
power  of  detachment  is  given  to  us,  catch  His 
mind  and  enter  into  the  originality  of  His  aims,  I 
have  made  a  study  of  the  Gospels  with  these  im¬ 
mediate  ends  in  view.  To  exhaust  them  were 
impossible.  From  the  limitless  sea  of  their  scope 
we  have  brought  such  treasures  as  our  limited  line 
could  reach. 

And  now  as  introductory  to  the  whole  subject 
let  us  consider,  in  what  remains  of  this  lecture,  the 
world  into  which  Jesus  came,  and  then  the  spirit  in 
which  He  approached  it.  We  are  thinking  of  Jesus, 
as  come  into  the  world  with  a  special  mission,  to  seek 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


io 

out  those  by  whom  He  is  to  found  the  Kingdom  of 
God  among  men.  What  was  the  existing  situation  ? 
What  were  his  lines  of  action  in  that  situation  ? 

I.  What  was  the  existing  situation?  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  surroundings  of  the  life 
narrated  in  those  Gospels  were  distinctly  Jewish. 
The  central  movement  of  these  stories  is  among 
the  covenant  people.  True,  the  narrative  is  im¬ 
pinged  upon  not  infrequently  by  heathen  surround¬ 
ings.  The  place  of  Christ’s  birth  was  indirectly 
determined  by  an  imperial  decree.  His  home  in 
Nazareth,  was  chosen  because  of  political  circum¬ 
stances  arising  out  of  the  national  subjection  to 
Rome.  Presumably  He  would  in  some  sort  be 
enrolled  a  Roman  subject.  From  the  hill  above 
Nazareth,  He  could  see  every  day  through  all  the 
quiet  years,  the  sea,  the  broad  plain  of  Esdraelon, 
along  which  emissaries  of  imperial  Rome  would 
frequently  travel,  further  south  the  great  road 
which  passed  by  Dothan,  from  Damascus  and  the 
far  east,  to  Egypt  and  the  Empires  of  the  west. 
Between  Him  and  Ebal  on  the  southern  horizon, 
scarcely  distinguished  among  the  huddle  of  lower 
hills  was  Herod’s  capital,  Sebaste,  on  the  site  of 
Ahab’s  city  of  Samaria ;  and  to  the  east,  over  the 
sunken  area  of  the  Galilean  lake,  rose  eminences 
of  Gilead  out  of  the  immeasurable  Asiatic  plains, 
while  northwards  Hermon  marked  the  boundary  of 
heathen  Syria. 


INTRODUCTORY 


1 1 

Ail  the  influences  flowing  from  this  continual 
outlook  mingled  with  the  thoughts  of  Christ  from 
His  earliest  years.  And  that  they  were  not  alien 
or  indifferent  to  Him,  His  whole  after  life  showed. 
While  as  we  shall  presently  see,  He  kept  in  His 
ministry  within  Jewish  lines,  He  was  not  held  by  a 
sectarian  spirit.  He  praised  the  faith  of  the 
centurion.  He  held  back  the  Syrophenician  woman 
from  her  desire,  only  until  faith  rose  triumphant 
over  every  obstacle,  and  drew  forth  His  unstinted 
response.  The  coming  of  the  Greeks  stirred  His 
soul  to  the  deeps.  There  was  in  Him  that  uni¬ 
versal  human  spirit,  or  rather  that  central  life  in 
God,  for  which  these  barriers  of  race,  religion, 
nationality  did  not  in  the  deepest  sense  exist. 

And  yet  the  point  for  us  to  notice,  is  that  He 
who  came  to  save  the  world  kept  through  all  His 
active  ministry  the  surrounding  nations  at  the 
gate.  He  came  unto  His  own.  He  lived  for  His 
chosen  people.  In  the  midst  of  a  vast  environing 
pagan  civilisation,  He  made  a  spiritual  idyl  of  the 
world’s  prime.  The  book  of  Ruth  is  not  more 
fragrant  of  an  open-air  pastoral  life.  No  book 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  more  full  of  covenant 
histories  and  hopes.  As  sweet  springs  in  the 
salt  sea,  the  Jewish  spirit,  quickened  into  new  life 
by  the  luminous  fulfilling  thoughts  of  Christ, 
made  room  for  itself  amid  that  alien  environment. 

We  can  remember  the  unfeigned  surprise  with 


I  2 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


which,  reading  some  years  ago  Schurer’s  u  The 
Jewish  People  in  the  Times  of  Jesus  Christ,”  we 
realised  in  how  many  directions  the  nation  had 
become  paganised.  Dotted  over  the  land  were 
numerous  Hellenistic  towns.  Even  in  the  strictly 
Jewish  region  of  Judea,  Galilee,  and  Perea,  there 
were  a  considerable  minority  of  Greeks.  Traces 
of  heathen  occupation  everywhere  abounded. 
Houses  were  built  in  western  fashion,  and  Hellenic 
architecture  met  the  eye  not  infrequently,  even 
in  the  temple  itself.  Public  baths,  and  inns  on 
western  models,  were  features  of  the  social  life. 
The  coinage  was  largely  Grasco-Roman.  Public 
games,  which  were  so  characteristic  a  feature  of 
Grecian  life,  were  held  every  fourth  year,  with  the 
utmost  splendour,  in  honour  of  Ctesar.  Even  in 
Jerusalem,  the  sacred  city,  a  theatre  was  reared ; 
while  in  a  valley  near  by  there  was  an  amphi¬ 
theatre.  To  a  casual  observer,  the  externals  of 
life  would  be  found  as  largely  conformed  to  pagan 
ideals,  as  in  any  other  outlying  dependency  of  the 
empire. 

Ambitious  kings,  however,  like  the  great  Herod, 
may  impose  an  external  form  of  civilisation  which 
has  no  root  in  the  popular  heart,  which  the  very 
genius  of  the  nation  revolts  from  as  an  alien  yoke. 
In  that  early  day,  as  in  the  vaster  arena  of  present 
commerce,  what  rubs  off  angles,  breaks  down 
peculiarities  of  thought  and  feeling,  creates  com- 


INTRODUCTORY 


x3 


munities  of  interest  and  pre-occupation  and  thought, 
is  intercourse  in  business  and  common  life.  Many 
centuries  before,  the  Phoenicians  had  created  com¬ 
merce  along  the  Mediterranean  border.  But  now, 
because  of  the  Roman  peace,  there  existed  a 
vigorous  trade  throughout  the  empire.  Palestine 
had  contact  with  east  and  west.  She  exported 
her  pickled  fish  and  received  sauce  from  Babylon, 
beer  from  Media,  Cilician  groats,  Bithynian  cheese, 
cotton  fabrics  from  India,  sandals  from  Laodicea, 
and  hemp  from  Greece.  And  where  business 
with  its  frequent  complications  enters,  commercial 
law  is  sure  to  follow,  so  that  courts  would  spring 
up  and  processes  be  carried  through  as  in  western 
towns. 

And  consequent  on  this  meeting  of  business 
and  professional  men,  a  more  or  less  cultured 
social  life  would  ensue.  Grecian  and  Roman 
models  would  provoke  imitation  in  literature  and 
in  the  arts.  Palestinian  writers  were  known 
beyond  their  own  land  before  the  time  of  Christ, 
numerous  literati  gave  distinction  to  the  courts  of 
the  Herods.  And,  supporting  Roman  authority, 
were  soldiers  from  all  corners  of  the  empire, 
possibly  from  Gaul.  And  thus  the  illusion,  of 
the  guarded  splendours  of  Rome,  pervading  the 
whole  empire,  would  successfully  be  maintained. 

Yet  side  by  side  with  this  busy  external  world 
was  another,  oh,  so  different !  The  apparent 


14  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


triumph  of  heathenism  provoked  many  reactions. 
There  were  fierce  zealots,  almost  beside  themselves 
with  rage  at  subjection  to  the  Romans.  There 
were  multitudes  who  stood  aloof  from  all  compro¬ 
mise.  And  despite  much  corruption  and  intrigue 
in  high  places,  the  nation  abode  upon  her  ancient 
ground,  the  temple  ministry  continued,  the  great 
feasts  were  held,  the  rabbis  taught  in  their  schools, 
high  priest  followed  high  priest  in  presidency  of  the 
Sanhedrin.  And  while  those  in  authority  were 
far  too  often  seared  in  heart  and  scarred  with 
evil,  under  the  shadow  of  their  hoary  institutions, 
many  poor  Simeons  and  Annas  and  Josephs  and 
Elizabeths  kept  alive  a  spiritual  faith. 

It  was  into  this  world  that  Jesus  came  from  his 
mountain  eyrie  in  Nazareth  u  when  he  began  to  be 
about  thirty  years  old.”  Even  to  a  man  of  superb 
spiritual  genius,  it  was  a  situation  in  which  any¬ 
thing  might  be  possible.  All  over  the  empire  not 
only  political  but  religious  landmarks  were  being 
abolished.  Surmounting  a  thousand  barriers, 
attaining  to  an  unexampled  glory  of  dominion, 
rejoicing  in  wealth,  refinement,  security,  influence, 
the  civilised  world,  nevertheless,  had  wakened  to  a 
hunger  unsatisfied.  He  who  could  fill  that  void, 
set  up  an  attractive  ideal  which  would  quicken 
anew  the  pulses  of  desire,  he  who  could  bring  even  a 
clever  devil’s  semblance  of  satisfaction  might  have 
that  world  for  vassal.  In  this  narrative  we  are 


INTRODUCTORY 


i5 


dealing  with  world-forces,  with  a  world-spirit  who 
shrewdly  saw  what  was  possible  to  him,  let  him 
win  a  rare  child  of  the  sun  like  Jesus,  with 
One  who  could  take  in  the  full  compass  of  this 
nefarious  aim,  and  bade  it  away. 

II.  See  the  line  which  Jesus  took  in  this 
situation. 

What  varied  lines  of  activity  lay  before  Jesus 
in  that  day  of  world  collapse,  and  opportunity  for 
an  incoming  power !  Think  you,  did  He  not  know 
that  He  was  face  to  face  with  the  greatest — the 
central  situation  and  turning  point  in  the  history  of 
man.  You  cannot  see  the  glory  of  the  line  which 
He  took,  unless  you  think  of  those  which  He  set 
aside.  In  this  connection  we  discern  the  extra¬ 
ordinary  significance  of  the  testing  which  he  under¬ 
went  at  the  entrance  of  His  career.  Without  such 
a  background  of  general  conception  we  cannot  dis¬ 
cern  the  sweep  and  force  of  Satan’s  temptation  in 
the  life  of  Jesus,  malignly  magnificent,  seeking  to 
engage  the  whole  world  of  His  ideas  and  energies, 
yet  entangle  them  in  the  snares  of  defeat.  Thus 
had  the  same  evil  spirit  used  every  hero  soul  of  all 
the  past,  either  baffling  or  diverting  him  from  any 
real  invasion  of  his  usurped  dominion.  Thus  does 
he  meet  Christ. 

For  us  who  have  in  us  the  spirit  and  passions 
of  the  race,  who  go  half-way  to  meet  the  tempta¬ 
tions  of  evil,  there  is  nothing  exactly  corresponding 


1 6  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


to  the  experience  of  the  Temptation  in  the  life  of 
Christ.  By  nature  we  make  our  stones  bread, 
use  every  ounce  of  faculty  for  our  own  ends. 
Every  one  aims  to  be  lord  of  his  own  world. 
And  we  would  presume  on  the  help  of  divine 
grace  to  carry  our  self-centred,  self-advertising 
schemes  through.  That  is  the  ground  and  base 
of  the  life  which  is  natural  to  us  all.  In  so  far  as 
we  are  in  any  degree  different  is  by  the  over¬ 
coming  power  of  a  new  life,  thrusting  forth  yet 
never  freeing  us  from  the  environing  self,  which 
gains  on  every  flagging,  but  recedes  on  every 
revival  of  faith. 

Christ  lived  wholly  within  the  circuit  of  His 
Father’s  will,  and  naturally  moved  out  into  the 
whole  sphere  of  His  mission  from  the  centre  of  the 
Father’s  will.  Evil  had  to  come  from  without,  and 
in  the  semblance  of  superior  good.  And  it  did  in 
a  way  which  tested  Jesus.  World  reputations 
were  not  uncommon.  Literary  men  from  Palestine 
had  become  known  at  Rome.  And  with  a  self- 
consciousness  which  we  can  only  by  fragments 
discern,  He  could  see  resources  in  Himself  by 
which  He  might  at  once  command  the  wonder, 
and  arouse  the  devotion  of  the  Roman  world. 
Instead  of  toiling  in  a  corner,  He  might  have  His 
name  and  teachings  borne  to  the  furthest  bounds  of 
civilisation.  And  all  this  He  could  genuinely  employ 
in  sacrifice  for  man,  to  realise  the  highest  good. 


INTRODUCTORY 


Browning  in  Paracelsus  sketches  the  very  soul 
of  this  seeming  unselfish  ideal,  as  evil  in  its  vile 
Egoism  could  set  it  forth : — 

u  What  oppressive  joy  was  mine 
When  life  grew  plain,  and  I  first  viewed  the  thronged, 

The  everlasting  concourse  of  mankind  ! 

•  •  •  * 

And  from  the  tumult  in  my  breast  this  only 
Could  I  collect  that  I  must  henceforth  die 
Or  elevate  myself  far  far  above 
The  gorgeous  spectacle.  I  seemed  to  long 
At  once  to  trample  on  yet  save  mankind, 

To  make  some  unexampled  sacrifice 
In  their  behalf,  to  wring  some  wondrous  good 
From  heaven  or  earth  for  them,  to  perish  winning 
Eternal  weal  in  the  act :  as  who  should  dare 
Pluck  out  the  angry  thunder  from  its  cloud, 

That,  all  its  gathered  flame  discharged  on  him, 

No  storm  might  threaten  summer’s  azure  sleep : 

Yet  never  to  be  mixed  with  men  so  much 
As  to  have  part  even  in  my  own  work,  share 
In  my  own  largess.  Once  the  feat  achieved 
I  would  withdraw  from  their  officious  praise, 

Would  gently  put  aside  their  profuse  thanks.”  1 

Such  was  the  kind  of  ideal  which  under  the 
momentary  spell  of  the  prince  of  evil,  glimmered 
before  the  eye  of  Christ.  What  multitudes  of 
his  reputed  followers  have  drunk  this  potion  of 
mandragora,  the  very  quintessence  of  egoism,  as 
if  it  were  the  wine  of  sacrifice.  The  Son  condemns 
all  this  as  sin  in  the  flesh,  and  in  His  own  person 

1  Part  I.,  “Paracelsus  Aspires.” 

B 


1 8  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


presents  an  ideal  so  infinitely  far  from  anything 
which  ever  entered  into  a  human  mind  that  the 
record  is  authenticated  by  the  brilliance  of  the 
content. 

The  reader  will  have  noticed  that  humility  comes 
to  a  man  as  he  mounts  the  heights  of  knowledge 
and  vision.  Echoes,  retailers  of  other  men’s 
discoveries,  are  chock-full  of  self-sufficiency.  It 
is  Sir  Isaac  Newton  who  feels  himself  as  a  child 
picking  up  a  pebble  on  the  shore  of  an  infinite 
ocean.  It  is  Wordsworth  who  sings  “Wisdom  is 
ofttimes  nearer  when  we  stoop  than  when  we  soar.” 
It  is  Christ  who  says,  “He  that  becometh  as  a 
little  child  the  same  is  great.”  And  so  what 
distinguishes  Him  from  all  others  is  simple 
obedience.  Other  men  are  marked  by  their 
achievements — victories,  codes  of  law,  poems, 
discoveries  and  inventions.  He  is  marked  by  an 
absolute  all  embracing  submission.  I  take  these 
for  the  keys  of  His  life.  “  I  do  nothing  of  myself.” 
(John  v.  19,  viii.  28.)  “I  can  of  mine  own  self  do 
nothing.”  (John  v.  30.)  Until  we  enter  into  that 
we  have  not  got  the  key  to  Christ.  We  may 
sum  up  qualities,  grow  eloquent  in  painting  traits, 
but  the  figure  on  our  canvas  is  not  the  Christ 
who  has  won  the  world’s  heart. 

If  we  are  to  follow  Him,  if  His  words  are  to 
ring  through  us,  and  the  world  to  confess  His 
charm,  we  must  enter  into  this  mystery  of  His 


INTRODUCTORY 


l9 


absolute  continuous  submission.  I  call  it  a  mystery, 
because  this  is  a  thing  which  of  ourselves  we 
never  can  enter  into.  To  a  grown  man  dealing 
with  the  facts  of  life,  obedience  is  abhorrent.  He 
wants  to  enquire,  reason,  speculate — in  a  word 
master  the  content  of  experience.  In  all  this, 
however,  he  is  only  hugging  his  chain,  glorying  in 
his  prison-house.  By  these  exercises  of  the  mind 
we  can  only  know  this  iron  world  of  law  in  the 
midst  of  which  we  live.  We  attain  but  to  the 
weak  and  beggarly  elements — to  the  shadows  of 
the  true.  Christ’s  submission  is  not  servitude, 
deference  to  tyrannical  authority.  At  bottom,  it 
is  loyalty  to  right,  to  One  in  whom  right  is 
enthroned,  subjection  of  the  personality  in  search 
of  perfect  good,  to  Him  who  on  these  grounds 
has  won  the  devotion  of  the  soul.  And  as  such, 
this  is  the  one  entrance  into  the  kingdom  of  the 
personal  Spirit,  and  of  all  holy  spirits  in  and  with 
Him. 

Christ’s  submission  which  means  nothingness 
on  this  side,  means  on  the  other,  openness  to  the 
world  of  the  unseen.  It  means  letting  this  higher 
world  reveal  itself  through  and  to  us.  The  light 
must  come  down  to  us  from  a  higher  region  than 
an  ordinary  human  experience.  Although  when 
it  comes,  that  light  vindicates  its  reality  to  human 
experience,  and  establishes  its  essential  truth  in 
every  individual  and  social  sphere.  And  this 


2o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


lying  open  to  God  that  He  may  discover  Himself 
in  us,  and  since  in  us,  through  us,  is  achieved 
through  no  single  and  perfunctory  act  of  sur¬ 
render.  By  what  we  call  an  act  of  total  surrender 
we  simply  give  God  the  right,  recognise  His  claim 
to  take  full  possession  of  us,  to  detach  every  faculty 
of  our  minds  from  merely  terrene  relations,  and  to 
raise  our  natures  step  by  step,  and  power  by  power, 
into  the  circle  of  the  Divine  thought,  that  they  may 
become  engaged  in  the  sequences  of  the  Divine 
plan.  Thirty  years  of  such  life  with  the  Father 
lay  behind  the  first  act  of  His  public  ministry. 
And  how  far  this  had  advanced  even  by  His 
twelfth  year,  is  seen  in  His  pre-occupation  with 
themes  of  religious  import,  and  the  astonishment 
of  the  doctors  at  the  answers  of  His  reverent  and 
discerning  mind. 

Take  in  what  this  means — for  we  are  at  the 
centre  of  the  whole  theme.  If  the  life  and  witness 
of  Jesus  Christ  are  to  be  reproduced  in  us,  and 
men  are  to  see  God  in  us,  and  flock  to  His  feet, 
we  must  grasp  the  meaning  and  quality  of  God’s 
revelation  in  Christ  as  it  affects  us.  God  has  been 
revealing  Himself  in  all  sorts  of  media.  He  has 
made  every  side  of  man  the  channel  of  an  inflow 
from  beyond  of  His  personal  glory.  But  now  the 
personal  God  is  discovering  Himself,  through  a 
divine-human  personality,  taken  up  in  ever 
deepening  surrender  into  the  divine  being,  that 


INTRODUCTORY 


21 


in  Him  as  much  as  through  Him,  God  may  be 
seen.  In  sense,  reason,  the  moral  faculty,  man 
is  simply  looking  away  at  a  God  with  whom  he  has 
affinity,  but  who  is  distant  from  and  other  than 
Him.  In  Israel  there  was  a  historical  union  of 
a  people  with  God,  without  completed  vital  union. 
In  Christ  there  was  and  is  the  living  consciousness 
of  perfect  continuous  oneness  with  the  Father, 
living  and  working  in  and  through  Him.  And  in 
His  ministers  there  must  be,  founded  on  renewal 
and  grace,  a  oneness  with  God  in  the  deeps  of  the 
individuality,  realised  by  the  Spirit,  not  only 
existent,  but  wrought  out  into  an  articulated 
harmony  of  mind  and  will,  with  the  mind  and  will 
of  God.  Through  a  living,  possessed  personality 
in  continual  touch  with  the  Divine,  God  touches 
man. 

To  come  back  after  this  detour — on  the  man- 
ward  side,  all  this  means  obedience.  A  personality 
is  a  living  consciousness,  an  unceasing  will,  a  sum  of 
unexpended  energies :  and  communion  means  un¬ 
ceasing  response  to  the  outflow  of  the  Divine  life. 
God  did  not  enunciate  Himself  in  certain  principles 
and  then  go  to  sleep.  The  divine  enunciation  of 
the  programme,  in  the  particular  experience  of 
every  succeeding  generation  is  dazzlingly  wonder¬ 
ful  as  His  programme  itself.  And  so  there  is 
nothing  for  it  but  self-abasement,  self-emptying, 
coming  in  the  Spirit  into  the  secret  place  and 


22  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


having  His  mind  livingly  made  known  now,  in 
relation  to  specific  opportunity.  The  two  poles 
from  which  light  freshly  breaks  on  revelation, 
age  by  age,  are  the  Spirit  and  opportunity. 
And  in  the  contact  of  these,  while  we  search 
the  Word  of  God  and  the  needs  of  man, 
we  gain  an  outflashing  of  the  very  heart  of  the 
eternal.  And  so  there  is  a  depth  and  fulness  in 
the  wisdom  of  obedience  which  we  only  gradually 
learn  to  know.  The  line  which  divides  the 
prostration  of  obedience  with  every  sluice  open 
to  the  inflow  of  Deity,  from  that  which  is  not 
obedience,  however  pure  and  beautiful,  is  like 
the  equatorial  line  written  with  no  hand  but 
involved  in  the  very  build  of  the  planet. 

That  quality  gives  shape  to  our  whole  ministry. 
The  closed  soul  derives  his  impressions  from 
human  ideas  and  influences,  and  produces  in  other 
minds  human  impressions  of  judgment  and  feeling. 
The  open  heart  athrill  with  the  Spirit,  carries  into 
every  other  open  heart,  a  flash  of  the  eternal  will. 
About  the  former  there  will  often  be  the  more 
noise.  Men  can  talk  freely  about  what  is  normal 
and  human.  The  fire  which  comes  from  God 
makes  those  uncomfortable  who  resist  it,  and 
those  who  receive  it  are  busy  with  God,  and  have 
no  time  to  think  about  the  preacher. 

In  order  that  this  conviction  may  take  root 
within  the  reader,  let  him  mark  the  large  vicarious 


INTRODUCTORY 


23 


element  (in  a  human  sense)  in  all  really  creative 
work  for  God.  The  workers  were  with  God 
in  His  covenant  hand  for  men.  Recall  Abraham’s 
intercession  for  Sodom,  Moses’  prolonged  and  mar¬ 
vellously  instructive  intercession  on  behalf  of  his 
people  —  Augustine’s  Confessions — especially  his 
soaring  from  Manichaean  error  into  full  fellow¬ 
ship  with  God,  Catherine  of  Siena’s  prayer  life, 
St  Francis’s  discoveries  of  his  inner  spirit  in 
u  The  Little  Flowers  of  St  Francis,”  Fletcher  of 
Madeley,  David  Brainerd,  George  Muller,  David 
Livingstone.  To  show  the  full  sweep  of  this 
personal  subjection  to  God,  allow  me  to  make 
one  extract  from  St  Francis.  u  When  as  St 
Francis  on  a  time  abode  in  the  house  of 
Portiuncula,  brother  Masseo  put  this  question — 
‘  I  say  why  doth  all  the  world  come  after  thee, 
and  why  is  it  seen  that  all  men  long  to  see  thee 
and  hear  thee  and  obey  thee  ?  Thou  art  not  a 
man  comely  of  form,  thou  art  not  of  much  wisdom, 
thou  art  not  noble  of  birth :  whence  comes  it  that 
it  is  after  thee  that  the  whole  world  doth  run  ?  ’ 
Hearing  this  Saint  Francis  all  overjoyed  in  Spirit 
lifting  up  his  face  unto  heaven  stood  for  a  great 
while  with  his  mind  uplifted  in  God :  anon  return¬ 
ing  to  himself  he  knelt  him  down  and  rendered 
thanks  and  praises  unto  God :  and  then  with 
great  fervour  of  spirit  turned  to  Brother  Masseo 
and  said — ‘  Wilt  thou  know  why  after  me  that 


24  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


the  whole  world  doth  run  ?  ’  This  cometh  unto 
me  from  the  eyes  of  the  most  high  God  which 
behold  at  all  times  the  evil  and  the  good,  for  those 
most  holy  eyes  have  seen  among  sinners  none 
more  vile,  none  more  lacking,  no  greater  sinner 
than  am  I :  wherefore  to  do  the  marvellous  work 
the  which  He  purposeth  to  do  He  hath  not  found 
upon  the  earth  no  creature  more  vile,  and  therefore 
hath  He  chosen  me  to  confound  the  nobleness,  and 
the  greatness,  and  the  strength,  and  the  beauty, 
and  wisdom  of  the  world :  to  the  intent  that  men 
may  know  that  all  virtue  and  goodness  come  from 
Him  and  not  from  the  creature,  and  that  no  man 
may  glory  in  himself.’  ’71 

We  have  seen  Christ’s  attitude  in  relation  to 
the  Father.  Let  me,  in  conclusion,  briefly  adduce 
His  conception  of  the  limited  scope  of  His  own 
mission.  Beyond  all  question  the  author  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has  caught  the  central 
note,  in  that  quotation  of  an  old  Psalm  uLo,  I 
come  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God.”  (Heb.  x.  7.)  God 
was  to  be  chief  actor  in  the  drama  of  His  life  and 
He  was  to  follow  in  obedience.  He  had  come,  that 
God,  through  His  filial  obedience,  might  carry  out 
His  Divine  purpose. 

Yet  there  was  nothing  impressionist,  accidental, 
unreasoning  in  such  a  life.  The  will  He  came  to 

1  Chapter  x.  “The  Little  Flowers  of  St  Francis, ”  translated  by  Arnold. 
Dent,  London. 


INTRODUCTORY 


25 


carry  out  was  God’s  age-long,  unbeginning,  unend¬ 
ing  will,  in  the  loftiest  sphere  of  that  will  in  which 
it  touched  man.  This  was  one  with  all  earlier 
stages  and  lower  levels  of  God’s  purpose,  and  so 
He  was  at  home  in  nature,  the  symbol  or  parable 
of  His  mission.  He  saturated  His  mind  with  the 
Old  Testament,  because  in  every  part  He  found 
that  same  will  springing  up  into  fragmentary  and 
temporary  manifestation.  And  now  in  the  fulness 
of  time  the  Father  will  reveal  Himself  in  His  Son. 

For  the  special  purposes  of  His  mission  Jesus 
had  wonderful  miraculous  and  prophetic  powers. 
Rut  this  founding  of  the  Divine  kingdom  was  not 
to  be  a  sheer  expression  of  Omnipotence ;  from 
all  the  lower  grounds  of  law  and  religion  on 
which  men  stood,  they  were  to  be  drawn  upwards 
to  that  direct  surrender  and  faith,  by  which  en¬ 
trance  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  was  to  be  realised. 
One  great  part  of  this  work  then  was  to  establish 
these  connections,  and  make  these  preparations. 
That  in  ultimate  issue  His  work  would  touch  the 
whole  world  was  a  fact  present  to  His  conscious¬ 
ness,  as  we  see  in  many  expressions.  But  even 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  pagan  empires  which 
had  been  before  His  eyes  from  infancy,  He  has  no 
desire  in  an  eclectic  spirit  to  dig  for  foundations 
of  His  Kingdom  there.  He  goes  back  into  the 
life  of  His  own  people — to  find  there  exclusively 
all  the  signs  of  special  preparation  for  the  kingdom 


26  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


of  God.  Ete  had  no  love  of  Rabbinism,  for  one 
taste  of  it  when  he  was  twelve  seems  to  have 
satisfied  Him.  But  in  the  Scriptures,  and  in  the 
living  faith  of  humble  Jews,  He  found  those  march¬ 
ings  of  God  in  the  past  which  were  to  culminate  in 
His  own  mission. 

With  what  devotion  He  threw  Himself  into  this 
preparatory  labour  we  have  one  incidental  proof. 
We  frequently  hear  and  read  of  the  influence  of 
environment  upon  character ;  but  a  supremely  great 
character  moulds  his  environment.  And  so  living 
in  a  semi-paganised  Palestine,  cognisant  of  those 
manifest  signs  which  we  have  already  described  of 
heathen  domination — by  the  loyalty  of  His  soul,  by 
His  devotion  to  the  immediate  task  of  preparing 
the  Jewish  people,  through  the  quickening  of  all 
that  was  deepest  and  truest  in  them,  for  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  He  so  ignored  what  did  not  lie 
in  the  line  of  His  purpose,  that  what  blooms  for¬ 
ever  in  these  Gospels,  is  an  open  air  life  among 
Jewish  men  and  women,  children  of  the  old 
covenant  under  new  and  strange  conditions.  His 
own  illumining  presence  seems  to  detach  every 
element  in  the  nation  with  which  He  had  affinity, 
to  live  around  Him,  and  make  a  spiritual  day 
ringed  by  its  own  brightness  from  the  surrounding 
night. 

It  was  a  very  narrow  and  lowly  role,  in  a  poor 
corner  of  the  empire,  among  a  despised  race.  Had 


INTRODUCTORY 


27 


He  imported  His  ideal  into  the  west  and  established 
affinities  with  western  thought,  the  world  might 
have  rung  with  His  name.  He  had  no  sectarian 
exclusiveness.  The  heathen  centurion  was  dear  to 
Him.  The  visit  of  the  Greeks  discovered  His  deep 
desire  to  draw  all  men  unto  Him.  But  this  was 
God’s  work,  and  it  was  His  to  toil  along  the  line  of 
God’s  will,  obeying  from  moment  to  moment,  secure 
that  along  this  line  the  purpose  of  God  would  best 
be  done. 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


THE  EARLIEST  MOVEMENTS  OF  HIS 

MINISTRY 


II 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 

THE  EARLIEST  MOVEMENTS  OF  HIS 

MINISTRY 

We  have  seen  the  situation  into  which  Jesus  came 
to  take  up  His  Home  Mission  preparatory  to  His 
founding  of  the  world-wide  Kingdom  of  God,  the 
solitary  spirit  of  submission  to  the  Father  in  which 
He  entered  on  that  work,  and  the  narrow  and 
circumscribed  role  which  He  chose  for  Himself 
in  leading  Israel  forward  to  the  realisation  of  the 
divine  will.  To-day  we  describe  in  relation,  His 
earliest  movements,  in  getting  into  line  with  the 
people,  and  beginning  to  exert  His  influence  on 
them. 

Every  step  in  such  a  progress  is  of  intense 
interest.  Most  of  us  are  conditioned  by  the 
circumstances  into  the  midst  of  which  we  come. 
We  are  officials  of  organisations,  taken  in  hand 
guided  and  controlled,  from  an  early  stage.  Jesus 
was  entirely  free.  He  stood  apart  from  every 
established  institution,  free  to  move  from  within, 
labelled  by  no  party  name,  avowedly  an  exceptional 


31 


32  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


and  original  person  in  the  life  of  Israel.  Not  that 
He  was  either  a  sectary  or  a  separatist.  In  the 
belief  of  John  Baptist  and  of  many  besides  He  had 
His  place  in  the  organism  of  Israel,  and  that  the 
highest,  the  promised  Messiah.  That  however,  in 
no  wise  affects,  indeed  heightens  the  considera¬ 
tion  which  we  are  now  pressing,  that  every  move¬ 
ment  of  Christ  in  beginning  His  ministry — so  far 
from  being  accidental — partakes  of  the  essence  of 
His  ministry,  and  is  to  be  studied  with  reverence. 

Permit  one  further  consideration.  The  dawn¬ 
ing  of  a  consecrated  ministry — the  human  getting 
into  hands  with  the  divine,  the  divine  establishing 
itself  in  the  human — is  always  an  anxious  time — 
with  human  workers  full  of  shifting,  and  conflict, 
and  unrest,  false  starts  coming  in  before  the  true. 
How  was  John  Knox  tossed  from  place  to  place — 
England,  Geneva,  Frankfort,  before  he  settled 
to  his  life’s  work  in  Scotland !  Through  how 
many  vicissitudes  John  Wesley  had  to  pass,  at 
college,  in  Georgia,  with  the  Moravians,  before 
he  struck  into  the  path  of  service  in  which  God 
worked  so  wonderfully  by  his  hand.  Livingstone 
was  kept  on  the  stretch  of  anxiety,  hoping,  fearing 
regarding  China,  until  in  a  kind  of  despair  he  found 
his  sphere  in  Africa.  Moody  tried  many  forms  of 
service  in  his  own  land,  before  God  took  him  across 
the  Atlantic  and  gave  him  his  place  of  world- 
influence  first  in  Edinburgh.  God  is  founding 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


33 


a  world  kingdom,  and  having  tried  and  proved 
His  servants,  calls  them  and  gives  them  their  place 
by  His  own  sovereign  hand.  This  formative  and 
preparatory  stage  in  the  life  of  Jesus  is  our  im¬ 
mediate  task. 

That  there  is  another  and  a  divine  side  in  the 
events  wdiich  we  are  rapidly  to  pass  over,  and  that 
there  are  deeper  meanings  and  fitnesses  than  those 
which  we  suggest,  is  to  us  matter  of  certainty. 
We  desire  to  individualise  the  man  Jesus,  entering 
on  His  work,  as  any  great  home  missionary 
might ;  and  to  note  His  acts,  and  the  incidents 
which  marked  this  opening  chapter,  in  their 
bearing  on  the  preparations  for  a  missionary 
career. 

I.  He  attaches  Himself  to  the  most  vital  move¬ 
ment  of  the  time.  This  new  Leader  was  looking 
out  for  reality — in  which  there  was  a  touch  and 
impress  of  the  Divine.  With  insatiate  hunger 
and  eagerness  as  the  Holy  Child,  he  became  lost 
to  the  sense  of  time  conversing  with  the  doctors. 
But  it  is  noticeable  he  never  went  thither  again. 
He  continued  to  recognise  the  religious  institutions 
of  the  land  as  appointed  by  God,  but  He  felt  no 
attachment  to  the  leaders  and  representatives  of 
religion.  He  went  “from  Galilee  to  Jordan  unto 
John  to  be  baptized  of  him  ”  (Mat.  iii.  13). 

In  all  this  there  was  no  discipleship,  or  union 
of  forces.  Rather,  since  Jesus  kept  so  strictly 

c 


34 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


His  own  ground,  and  followed  His  own  line,  He 
must  have  been  conscious  of  limitation  and  differ¬ 
ence  of  standpoint  in  the  Baptist.  Yet  for  a  Son 
who  lives  in  the  eye  of  the  Father,  and  who  is 
devoting  Himself  to  bringing  men  to  God  and 
God  to  men,  the  main  point  is  not  confessional 
agreement,  but  to  get  into  line  with  men  in  whom 
the  spirit  and  power  of  God  are.  If  He  is  giving 
His  grace  to  such,  they  have  an  end  to  serve  in 
the  evolution  of  His  kingdom.  Christ  followed 
a  holy  instinct  in  all  this.  And  if  we  would  be 
used  of  God,  if  we  would  have  God  come  into 
us  and  work  His  convincing,  converting,  sanctifying 
work  through  us,  we  must  have  an  eye  for  every 
movement  of  His  power  in  contemporary  Christen¬ 
dom.  Your  little  bit  of  work  and  mine  is  not 
some  isolated  service  which  we  can  take  up 
without  any  thought  of  the  great  march  of 
events.  God  comes  into  you  to  relate  you  to 
His  world-purpose,  and  by  you  to  fulfil  some  frag¬ 
ment  of  His  saving  design.  As  truly  as  Isaiah 
or  Paul  was  a  man  of  destiny  fitting  into  an 
emergency,  and  fulfilling  an  end  of  God,  shall 
you  and  I  in  our  lesser  place  and  on  our  commoner 
level  be.  All  through  this  lecture  it  will  be 
seen  how  much  hangs  on  keeping  close  to  God, 
moving  only  from  these  high  instincts,  which  He 
kindles  and  sustains,  and  step  by  step  as  He 
leads. 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


35 


But  there  was  a  further  noticeable  element  in 
the  identification  of  Christ,  not  only  with  John 
Baptist  but  with  the  earnest  souls  whom  He 
committed  to  a  life  of  righteous  endeavour. 
Think  what  these  must  have  been,  a  most  pro¬ 
miscuous  assemblage,  Pharisees,  Sadducees,  Zealots, 
every  sect  and  class  of  Jew  from  the  Dispersion 
as  well  as  Jewry,  each  a  type  of  others,  aroused 
yet  wavering,  drawn  but  not  decided.  Whatever 
we  may  call  that  crowd,  and  opinions  will  differ 
now  as  then,  in  that  class  was  to  be  found  the 
most  earnest  movement  Godward  in  the  whole 
population.  And  Jesus  identified  Himself  with 
that. 

When  you  begin  to  work  in  any  district  round 
your  church,  your  primary  difficulty  will  be  to 
come  into  line,  with  all  the  earnest  spirits  in  whom, 
under  one  form  or  another,  there  is  an  appetency 
for  good.  We  have  no  John  Baptist  just  now- 
no  national  theocratic  conscience,  to  draw  out  of 
all  nooks  and  corners  of  individual  standpoint, 
the  souls  open  to  the  light,  and  form  them  into 
a  whole.  We  often  work  among  little  coteries 
of  passive  souls  more  readily  subject  to  our  influ¬ 
ence,  while  stronger  characters  are  spending  them¬ 
selves  on  subsidiary  tasks,  social  reform,  politics, 
rights  of  man,  and  so  forth,  fancying  themselves 
against  us,  because  they  are  not  with  us.  While 
really,  if  we  had  the  magnetic  touch  we  would 


36  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


make  evident  to  the  dullest  that  we  were  with 
and  for  them  and  not  against. 

And  now  from  an  objective  human  standpoint 
notice  the  manner  of  Christ’s  identification.  He 
sought  to  stand  on  a  level  with  John’s  disciples 
and  took  their  baptism.  True,  His  standpoint 
and  theirs  was  a  whole  hemisphere  apart,  but 
there  was  a  peculiar  appositeness  in  that  common 
act  by  one  who  was  so  far  removed  from  them.  As 
having  the  higher  light  He  stood  in  their  place, 
not  only  with  them  but  for  them.  To-day,  we  do 
not  travel  to  the  issue  of  His  mission  to  see  all 
that  that  implies,  but  are  simply  in  human  fashion 
studying  how  He  entered  on  it.  He  believed 
that  He  could  only  win  by  sympathy,  and  under¬ 
standing  even  the  limitations  of  their  view. 

There  is  a  great  work  to  be  done  at  this  point 
in  our  day.  We  cannot  presume  on  being  fully 
understood  in  our  higher  Christian  aims,  by  many 
who  in  something  of  Christ’s  spirit  are  working 
for  the  good  of  men.  Christ  is  welcomed  at  all 
frontiers, — but  we,  who  carry  on  our  backs  the 

burden  of  the  Church’s  defects  and  sins,  will  find 

/ 

impalpable  atmospheres  of  dislike,  hostile  judg¬ 
ments,  suspicions,  unfair  aspersions  investing  us, 
and  blighting  with  failure  our  efforts  to  win  their 
confidence  and  sympathy.  And  yet  all  that  mass 
of  hostility  to  the  Church  is  not  to  be  put  down 
to  the  corruption  of  the  human  heart.  These 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


37 


persons  have  shrewd  enough  criticisms  to  press, 
serious  blots  to  point  out.  Honestly  enough,  many 
are  bowing  down  to  ideals  of  some  kind,  yet  out  of 
sympathy  with  organised  church  life  and  outstand¬ 
ing  forms  of  evangelistic  effort.  The  wise  worker 
for  souls  will  take  some  means  of  showing  that  he 
is  in  spirit  with  them,  committed  even  more  than 
they  are  committed  for  right  and  truth. 

This  getting  into  line  with  all  the  elements  in  a 
population  who  have  been  turning  Godward,  and 
undergoing  any  measure  of  secret  preparation  for 
further  search,  is  in  our  modern  civilisation,  a 
very  difficult  yet  a  most  necessary  work.  The 
one  thing  that  Satan  cannot  imitate,  and  the  human 
heart  cannot  resist,  is  helpful  love,  chiming  in  with 
real  human  need.  If  we  meet  men  in  that  spirit, 
we  will  attract  to  us  earnest  souls,  across  a  hundred 
barriers  of  divergent  creed  and  hostile  standpoint. 
And  we  shall  win  from  our  Father  that  spiritual 
touch  which  opens  the  hearts  of  men.  Is  it  not 
significant  to  notice  that  while  in  this  act  of 
brotherliness  getting  into  line  with  men,  a  visible 
dower  fell  upon  Christ  from  heaven  ?  The  Holy 
Ghost  came  upon  Him  and  the  voice  rang  out 
“this  is  my  beloved  son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased” 
(Mat.  iii.  17).  So,  myriads  of  times,  has  a  witness 
from  God  come  down  upon  men  and  women,  just 
as  they  were  getting  into  helpful  touch  with  their 
fellows — upon  medical  missionaries,  upon  heroic 


38  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


souls  who  have  stood  with  and  for  the  masses  of 

\  c- 

our  people,  upon  a  Henry  Drummond,  who  made 
the  student  mind  and  student  needs  his  own. 

II.  He  starts  in  His  ministry  from  the  standpoint 
of  John.  At  this  point  I  confess  frankly  that 
there  are  some  difficulties  in  piecing  the  frag¬ 
mentary  notices  of  this  earliest  period  of  His 
ministry.  I  do  not  mean  in  determining  what 
passages  belong  to  it,  for  regarding  that  most 
authorities  are  agreed,  but  in  relating  His  activities 
within  these  months  into  a  continuous  whole. 
We  can  only  argue  for  our  presentation  what 
inherent  verisimilitude  it  may  have  in  your  view. 

As  regards  the  form  of  Jesus’  ministry,  Matthew 
asserts  as  true,  even  for  a  later  period,  that  Jesus 
began  to  preach  and  to  say,  u  Repent  ye  for  the 
Kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand  ”  (Matt.  iv.  17). 

In  His  very  enunciation  of  John’s  message,  how¬ 
ever,  Jesus  soon  discovered  how  far  He  stood  apart 
from  the  limited  Old  Testament  standpoint  of 
John.  The  Baptist  occupied  Old  Testament 
ground.  He  would  revive  the  moral  intensity, 
and  the  vision  of  God,  characteristic  of  the  best 
periods  of  the  prophetic  age.  Where  he  advanced 
beyond  them  in  personal  appeal,  in  the  rousing 
of  the  individual  conscience,  in  his  sense  of  the 
inevitableness  of  moral  principle,  and  searching 
divine  holiness,  arose  from  his  new  and  irresistible 
conviction  of  Messiah  as  just  at  hand,  and  his 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


39 


realisation  of  the  wonderful  power  of  the  divine 
Spirit,  by  whom  every  soul  would  be  searched  as 
by  the  fire  of  God.  Without  the  Kingdom,  he 
spoke  as  a  herald,  feeling  it  to  be  at  the  door.  He 
roused  men  by  his  moral  intensity  to  brace  them¬ 
selves  up  for  that  great  event. 

Jesus  stood  within  the  Kingdom.  The  content 
of  the  new  conception  was  within  His  mind.  Fie 
was  moving  on  from  within  to  unfold  from  within 
the  riches  of  the  New  Testament  ideal.  To  Him 
it  grew  to  be  of  less  and  less  importance,  to  bind 
Flis  followers  by  the  vow  of  baptism  to  a  mere 
resolve  of  penitence.  He  rather  sought  to  bring 
them  within  the  liberty  and  vision  of  the  new 
Kingdom,  to  be  held  fast  by  the  inherent  attrac¬ 
tions  of  the  truth,  and  the  magnetism  of  love. 
Mere  moral  impressions  were  transient,  vows 
under  the  pressure  of  these  were  simply  human 
constraints  until  something  better  appeared.  As 
John  himself  saw,  what  Jesus  aspired  to  achieve  was 
something  infinitely  deeper — with  the  discovery 
of  God’s  perfect  counsel,  to  bring  in  a  divine 
power,  and  the  renewal  and  indwelling  of  a  divine 
Spirit,  to  keep  those  who  could  not  keep  them¬ 
selves.  The  Kingdom  of  heaven — in  which  heaven 
should  actually  come  down  to  earth,  and  man  be 
actually  united  to  God — this  Kingdom  is  at  hand. 

From  the  beginning,  this  new  wonder,  these 
wider  horizons,  this  richer  content  marked  the 


40 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


thought  of  Jesus.  Indeed  as  recorded  in  the 
Johannine  narrative,  the  announcement  of  the 
Baptist  became  so  explicit  that  even  if  Christ’s 
own  mind  had  not  been  full  of  His  mission,  He 
would  have  been  urged  on  to  this  higher  plane. 
All  unwittingly,  the  Jews  by  their  deputation 
(John  iii.  27),  urged  John  to  this,  who,  conscious 
of  his  mediate  and  temporary  function,  announced 
the  actual  presence  of  Messiah.  Coming  up 
from  the  Temptation,  Jesus  found  that  John’s 
message  had  expanded.  Not  only  was  He  pointed 
out  as  Messiah,  but  His  function  was  more  dis¬ 
tinctly  described.  Not  only  was  the  dawning  of 
the  Kingdom  to  be  the  coming  of  an  era  of  search¬ 
ing  moral  judgment,  with  a  fall  to  many ;  but  out 
of  this  was  to  burst  an  era  of  salvation.  John 
could  find  no  analogy  in  the  past,  but  in  the  emanci¬ 
pation  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt.  And  Jesus  was 
to  be  the  Lamb  of  God,  through  whose  sacrifice 
they  were,  not  only  to  be  sheltered,  but  to  pass  out 
into  new  fellowship  with  God.  He  saw  a  new  day 
of  increase  and  advance,  and  Jesus  the  soul  and 
centre  of  all.  He  himself,  his  name  and  work 
would  dwindle  into  a  forgotten  past. 

Do  not  let  us  minimise  this.  Do  not  let  the 
doctrine  of  a  merely  natural  development  lead  us 
to  alter  the  accents  of  this  narrative.  We  must 
not  find  the  analogies  for  John’s  prophetic  antici¬ 
pation  of  the  atoning  mission  of  Christ  in  physical 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


41 


and  biological  science,  but  in  the  region  of  human 
personality.  In  a  great  discoverer  like  Columbus, 
it  is  the  whole  project,  the  ideal  in  large  and 
general  import,  which  comes  first,  kindling  passion, 
firing  endeavour,  and  from  that  higher  plane  he 
descends  to  mediate  stages  and  details.  This  is 
true  to  spiritual  fact ;  and  also  to  the  circumstance 
that  John’s  only  followers  who  have  left  a  mark 
on  history,  should  have  turned  at  once  from  the 
setting  to  the  rising  sun. 

In  all  this  we  have  the  profoundest  teaching  for 
ourselves.  When  we  commit  ourselves  to  God 
and  with  all  humility  of  soul  take  the  line  in  which 
according  to  His  providential  indications  we  may 
glorify  Him,  we  are  committed  to  the  forces  of 
history,  both  adverse  and  favourable,  which  work  in 
the  hand  of  the  Sovereign  Disposer  to  issues  which 
we  cannot  foresee.  In  every  great  confessor’s  life 
the  moulding  of  external  forces  is  as  manifest  as 
in  this  passage  of  the  life  of  Jesus.  We  speak  of 
men  of  destiny  but  none  are  more  fully  so  than 
those  who  are  in  the  hand  of  God  for  the  redemp¬ 
tion  of  men. 

III.  He  takes  His  first  step  towards  founding  the 
Kingdom  in  the  choice  of  elect  men.  John  had 
disciples  but  they  were  the  mere  echoes  of  his  in¬ 
fluence,  fired  with  his  fire,  and  disappearing  so  far  as 
positive  testimony  goes,  with  the  dying  down  and 
cessation  of  his  ministry.  Christ  chose  personalities 


42  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


in  whom  His  Kingdom  would  live  and  grow.  As 
Professor  Bruce  with  admirable  insight  discerned, 
His  ministry  was  largely  a  u  training  of  the  twelve.” 
Jesus  grappled  with  individual  men  and  bound 
them  to  Himself  with  resistless  force.  Let  us 
make  much  of  individual  personalities.  One  man 
is  not  as  good  as  another.  There  are  men  worth 
millions.  And  lower  than  these,  there  are  lowly 
souls,  incapable  of  sublime  initiative,  who  have  an 
absorptive  power  for  human  influence  which  raises 
them,  in  immediate  results,  almost  to  the  level  of 
their  leaders.  St  Francis  who  stands  alone  in 
Christendom  for  the  swift  and  profound  impression 
of  his  ministry  all  over  Europe,  had  his  brothers 
Bernard,  and  Leo,  and  Giles,  and  Elias,  and  Silvester, 
and  noble  sister  Clare.  John  Wesley,  the  founder 
of  one  of  the  largest  religious  bodies  in  the  world, 
had  John  Nelson,  and  John  Oliver,  and  Pawson, 
Mather,  Thomas  Oliver,  John  Haime,  Sampson 
Staniforth  and  many  others.  We  must  remember 
that  we  are  helping  to  extend  a  Kingdom  which  is 
to  stand  and  grow,  mediately  through  the  force 
of  human  characters,  who,  in  gathering  in  the  elect 
have  to  exhibit  as  perfectly  as  possible  through 
their  own  individualities  the  Christian  ideal,  and 
permeate  every  human  interest  and  activity  with 
His  Spirit. 

A  profound  interest  attaches  to  the  first  informal 
choice  of  disciples  recorded  in  John  i.  35-51.  This 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


43 


at  least  is  no  idealism,  but  history,  with  every  vivid 
detail  fresh  in  the  writer’s  mind,  showing  that  he 
had  taken  a  profound  interest  in  the  events  as  they 
transpired,  and  that  they  had  lived  among  his  most 
sacred  recollections.  Nothing  exactly  like  this 
selection  had  ever  been  made  in  the  world  before. 
Round  great  seers,  schools  of  the  prophets  had 
gathered  in  Israel,  the  Greek  philosophers  and 
sophists  founded  academies  from  which  came 
forth  noble  disciples,  perpetuating  and  even  ex¬ 
tending  the  influence  of  their  parent  philosophies. 
But  Jesus  is  choosing  men  who,  receiving  His 
message  and  fertilised  by  His  grace  should  yield 
their  whole  individuality  to  its  influence ;  become 
illumined  and  transfigured  by  their  experiences ; 
conceive  the  new  life  which  they  have  found,  from 
their  own  standpoint  and  with  their  own  special 
gifts,  pouring  its  energies  through  the  floodgates 
of  their  own  characteristic  energies,  and  so  become 
types  and  teachers  within  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
creating  special  waves  of  influence  and  exerting 
their  own  peculiar  magnetism.  No  one  honours 
human  personality  as  our  Lord  who  subjects  it 
wholly  to  Himself.  Take  two  of  these  five  disciples 
selected  by  Christ,  and  realise  what  they  stand  for 
in  the  Kingdom  of  God — practical,  tender  Peter 
and  that  serene  and  far  reaching  mystic  John. 

Let  us  come  closer  to  the  record.  The  reader 
will  find  here  a  masterly  study  of  human  types, 


44 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


and  much  insight  into  the  rare  and  subtle  attrac¬ 
tions  of  Christ’s  personality.  In  our  evangelism 
we  have  machine  methods,  which  in  experience 
have  been  found  to  meet  the  needs  of  many.  They 
are  imperfect,  however,  even  as  regards  those  whom 
they  influence,  letting  many  run  through  their 
meshes  back  into  the  world,  and  there  are  vast 
numbers  whom  they  repel.  True,  we  must  not 
represent  these  wholesale  methods  as  if  they  were 
inadmissible,  for  the  thousands  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost  and  subsequently,  must  have  been  dealt 
with  and  admitted  to  the  Church  by  somewhat 
analogous  means.  Neither  must  we  overlook, 
however,  the  slower  and  more  selective  methods 
of  our  Lord. 

Jesus  made  no  overtures  to  the  most  distinguished 
pair  of  these  five,  Andrew  and  John.  They  ap¬ 
proached  Him,  and,  when  eager  to  attach  them¬ 
selves  they  said,  “Master  where  dwellest  Thou?  ” 
He  only  replied,  “come  and  see  ”  (John  i.  38,  39). 
Some  men  are  not  to  be  driven  or  even  very  ob¬ 
trusively  drawn.  Leave  them  room  unfettered  to 
make  up  their  own  minds.  You  cannot  tell  what 
may  determine  them,  not  an  argument  possibly  or 
an  appeal,  but  something  they  have  seen — some 
grace  or  trait.  “  Whence  hath  this  man  the 
balm  that  brightens  all  ?  ”  More  men  than  we 
imagine  are  working  away  from  their  own  centre  at 
the  problem  of  their  own  lives.  They  have  their 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


45 


own  findings,  such  as  they  are — not  capable  of 
expression  in  theological  language  mayhap,  but 
valuable  for  them,  and  they  do  not  want  us  to 
intrude.  If  we  show  sympathy  in  our  common 
relations,  a  tolerant  and  tender  respect  for  others, 
a  ready  helpful  disposition  wherever  they  are  open 
to  receive  it,  the  shy  spirit  of  the  self-respecting 
man  will  discover  itself,  and  we  may  not  know  for 
long  what  in  us  has  won  him. 

The  first  sign  Jesus  got,  that  He  had  gained 
Andrew,  was  his  bringing  his  brother.  A  great 
many  human  beings  live  in  others.  They  are 
always  thinking  how  this  or  that  will  affect  those 
whom  they  love.  Andrew  listened  with  all  his 
ears,  not  making  much  of  his  own  joy,  but  saying, 
“  This  is  the  very  thing  for  my  clever  brother, 
Peter.  I  know  this  will  fetch  and  satisfy  him.” 
There  are  a  greater  number  than  we  imagine, 
even  among  the  strong  men  of  the  world,  more 
open  to  the  tie  of  blood,  the  touch  of  a  kinsman’s 
love,  than  all  other  influences.  You  do  not  know 
men  if  you  do  not  know  that.  Leave  some  room 
for  the  working  of  natural  affections  and  bonds. 
Andrew,  with  the  glow  of  a  new  love  irradiating 
all  his  countenance,  was  a  far  better  apostle  to 
Simon  in  his  distraught  mood,  than  mayhap  Christ 
Himself.  They  had  played  as  boys,  wrought  on 
the  same  net.  And  now  Andrew  had  found  what 
Simon  still  lacked. 


4 6  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


I  am  not  enlarging  for  picturesque  effect. 
Every  one  of  these  touches  has  value  for  my 
theme.  Matthew  Henry  says  somewhere  that 
in  trying  to  give  a  man  a  new  nature  we 
should  not  stir  up  his  ill-nature.  If  we  are  to 
spend  our  lives  playing  on  human  nature  in  the 
interests  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  we  must  give 
ourselves  to  the  understanding  of  human  nature. 

I  notice  among  young  preachers  a  strong  tendency 
to  take  their  illustrations  from  current  fiction. 
But  let  us  remember  there  are  whole  regions  of 
the  soul,  that  are  not  so  much  as  touched  by  the 
great  masters  of  fiction.  They  work  on  the 
common  human  level,  far  too  often  they  appeal 
to  the  coarser  passions  and  motives  of  the  human 
soul,  and  when  they  touch  higher  phases  of  feeling 
they  are  always  limited  by  the  strictly  personal 
goal  to  which  the  story  is  moving  on.  The  only 
imaginative  writers  whom  I  have  found  deeply 
interpretative  for  the  ethical  and  spiritual  regions 
of  man  as  they  look  out  to  God,  have  been 
Shakespeare  in  his  interpretation  of  conscience, 
Browning  in  his  optimism.  Both  throw  down  the 
shadow  of  God  on  life  and  the  soul,  and  not 
merely,  like  so  many  others,  enrich  the  thought 
of  the  world  by  deep  sea  soundings  in  the  regions 
of  our  present  experience. 

Give  yourselves  then  to  the  study  in  biographies, 
diaries,  and  the  literature  of  meditation,  of  the 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


47 


more  exalted  regions  of  the  human  soul.  Take 
a  dip  at  least  into  natural  mysticism — as  by  distinc¬ 
tion  we  may  term  it — in  order  to  realise  the 
appetencies  for  God  lying  latent  or  unexpressed 
in  human  nature.  Study  the  various  schools  of 
Christian  mysticism  —  in  order  to  gain  some 
adequate  impression  of  the  depth  and  range  of 
that  region  in  the  human  personality,  which 
responds  to  the  appeal  of  the  Divine.  Inge’s 
recent  Bampton  Lecture  on  Christian  mysticism 
will  form  a  suitable  introduction  to  the  really  vast 
territory,  and  suggest  profitable  lines  of  study. 
By  no  means,  however,  confine  yourselves  to 
these.  Christianity  is  not  alone  for  those  who 
have  natural  affinities  with  the  spiritual.  Study 
the  lives  and  self-revelations  of  all  great  natures 
of  whatever  bent,  speculative,  intellectual,  adminis¬ 
trative,  practical,  who  have  been  mastered  by  the 
Gospel  of  Christ,  Augustine’s  Confessions,  marvel¬ 
lous  in  self-discovery,  in  the  conflict  of  the  mind 
with  subtle  Manichean  error,  and  uprise  into  the 
fulness  and  liberty  of  the  Catholic  faith ;  the 
struggles  of  great  soldiers  like  Cromwell,  of  state- 
builders  like  William  Penn,  subtle  thinkers  like 
Jonathan  Edwards,  martyrs  for  principle  like  John 
Woolman,  philanthropists  like  George  Muller, 
reformers  like  Josephine  Butler,  missionary  ex¬ 
plorers  like  Livingstone — and  above  all,  the 
matchless  biographies  of  Scripture.  You  cannot 


48  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


master  men  unless  you  explore  to  them  the  depths 
of  their  spirits,  and  hold  up  before  the  eye  of  the 
soul  a  picture  of  its  indefeasible  possibilities  and 
quenchless  aspirations.  The  miserable  fumbling  at 
the  mere  outside  of  man,  characteristic  of  so  much 
modern  preaching,  is  doomed  to  failure.  As  a 
strong  soul  said  to  me  after  a  brilliant  display  in 
that  line,  u  that  man  has  no  message  for  me,”  so 
do  all  true  seekers  turn  from  the  ablest  and  best 
who  have  not  a  revealing  message  from  God  to 
the  inward  man. 

But  let  us  return,  and,  in  Christ’s  dealing  with 
Simon,  let  us  watch,  on  the  part  of  Christ,  another 
marvel  of  intuitive  discernment  and  resistless 
attraction.  With  the  bulk  of  men  the  personal 
equation  is  supreme.  Ever  and  anon,  however,  we 
find  ideal  souls  in  whom  the  personal  is  thrown 
into  the  background.  They  have  a  scent  for 
the  whole,  an  instinct  for  God.  Their  burden  is 
their  conscious  detachment  from  positive  good, 
their  warfare,  the  marshalling  and  bringing  into 
due  subjection  and  concord,  of  the  tumultuous 
forces  of  their  souls.  They  belong  to  whoever 
can  interpret  them  to  themselves.  Tradition, 
machine-made  formulae  are  nothing  to  them. 
Their  burden  is  this  new  God’s  fact  of  them¬ 
selves,  this  life  which  is  in  their  hands,  to  make 
or  mar,  related  to  this  mysterious  universe  in  which 
may  be  found  ghastliest  failure  or  most  glorious 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


49 


success.  What  are  all  your  hearsays,  and  question¬ 
ings  of  the  mind,  and  established  opinions  to  this? 

See  how  Christ  can  deal  with  a  soul  like  that. 
“Thou  art  Simon,  Son  of  Jona  ” — thy  father’s 
son — not  yet  known  for  aught  in  thyself,  heredi¬ 
tary  elements  at  war  in  thee,  movement  enough, 
confusion  and  unrest,  but  no  ripening  as  yet, 
much  less  positive  product.  Christ  had  read  the 
soul  of  Peter,  the  shame  and  burden  of  a  foiled 
heart,  burning  to  express  its  conscious  energy  in 
intense  action.  And  then,  on  the  back  of  the 
humbling  self-revelation  came  the  ideal  satisfaction, 
drawing  every  atom  of  him  into  the  focus  of 
faith.  “  Thou  shalt  be  called  Cephas  ” — rock  ; 
out  of  the  chaos  shall  come  unity,  consistency, 
strength,  endurance,  standing  for  something  posi¬ 
tive  in  the  universe  of  God, — on  whose  adamant 
confession  other  men  may  build  to  time’s  latest  age. 

Surely  He  who  can  speak  so,  deserves  the 
leadership  of  humanity.  How  much  we  have  to 
learn  before  we  can  presume  to  talk  of  dealing 
with  human  souls  ?  And  now  for  two  tempering 
lessons.  Note  the  catholicity  of  Jesus.  Because 
His  kingdom  was  of  and  for  man,  He  needed 
all  sorts  of  ministers.  And  He  who  had  bound 
a  Peter  to  Himself,  attaches  a  Philip — a  forth¬ 
right,  direct  nature,  incapable  of  introspection, 
with  a  brisk  objective  outlook  on  life,  and  a 
power  of  attaching  and  influencing  men.  He 

D 


50  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


yielded  to  the  immediate  impression,  and  obeyed 
Christ’s  command  docilely  as  a  child.  Students 
are  apt  to  make  light  of  plain,  unideal,  bustling 
men  of  that  sort ;  but  God  serves  Himself  of 
all  faculties.  Philip  brought  Nathanael  and  the 
Greeks.  And  where  a  whole  church  is  stagnating 
in  a  community,  one  such  man  will  ferret  out 
needy  souls,  and  set  activities  agoing  which  abler 
men  are  powerless  to  achieve. 

Then  another  great  lesson.  Christ  did  not 
despise  the  passive  in  human  nature.  Quiet, 
phlegmatic  men,  ill  to  move,  with  no  enthusiasm, 
ready  with  mild  objections  against  action,  pro- 
vokingly  still  and  slow,  when  we  would  have  them 
bestir  themselves,  have  their  place  in  the  kingdom. 
They  have  great  solidity  of  character,  unshaken 
reverence,  deep  instinctive  trusts.  Under  their 
fig-tree,  quietly  ruminating,  they  feel  and  note 
the  touch  of  the  divine  through  the  whirl  of 
the  human.  They  cherish  providences,  store  up 
coincidences.  As  movements  do  not  stir  them, 
reverses  leave  them  in  unbroken  calm.  Men  and 
women  confide  in  their  unquestioning  piety.  Many 
a  time  men  of  that  type  have  anchored  an  age  to 
the  unseen.  The  evangelicals  in  recent  centuries 
were  many  of  them  men  of  that  type,  and  we 
have  known  not  a  few  in  our  own  time.  The 
evangelists  or  teachers  who  think  that  they  are  to 
drive  all  men  along  a  single  track  and  put  upon 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


5l 


them  one  hall-mark,  simply  do  not  understand  the 
manysidedness  of  the  humanity  with  which  they 
deal.  And  not  knowing  men,  they  browbeat  those 
whom  they  should  encourage,  and  depreciate  those 
who  are  nearer  the  kingdom  than  they  know. 

Instantly  the  master  saw  in  Nathanael  a  type  of 
Jewish  religion,  like  that  represented  by  Simeon, 
Anna  and  many  in  every  generation  of  the  faithful. 
Jesus  was  not  afraid  to  praise.  “Behold  an 
Israelite  indeed,”  marked  by  a  spirit  free  from  all 
insincerity  through  constant  loyalty  to  God. 

And  now  note  another  line  of  approach,  subtler 
and  more  striking,  to  win  one  whom  most  leaders 
would  have  passed  by  as  of  little  worth.  Nathanael 
was  self-mistrustful,  the  kind  of  man  that  needs  to 
be  encouraged  into  strength.  And  the  master  to 
fasten  him  in  the  mood  of  surrender,  to  lift  him 
out  of  himself  in  a  life-long  devotion,  throws 
around  him  a  gleam  of  omniscience.  u  When  thou 
wast  under  the  fig-tree  I  saw  thee.”  There  are 
many  humble  hearts  living  aloof  from  the  world 
to  whom  the  sense  of  God  is  habitual.  They 
build  on  the  promises  and  are  waiting  for  their 
fulfilment.  Like  others,  this  man  had  been 
wrought  up  into  expectation  of  a  coming  Deliverer. 
And  when  he  heard  of  an  eye  that  had  been  on 
him,  seeking  after  him,  while  hid  from  mortal 
vision,  in  a  moment  he  felt  this  was  the  One 
from  God  seeking  out  His  own,  and  he  exclaimed, 


52  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


“Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  the  King  of  Israel.” 
This  quiet  man  had  gone  furthest  of  them  all. 
The  fact  that  Christ  far  off  yearned  to  and  found 
out  his  secret  heart,  evoked  a  radiant  certainty. 
And  Christ’s  heart,  touched  with  a  confidence  and 
vision  so  utterly  unrestrained,  crowns  him  with 
His  favour,  giving  a  prevision  of  the  Ascension. 

What  a  masterly  work  this  was.  How  He 
grasped  these  men,  along  the  line  of  their  faculties, 
by  what  was  deepest  in  them,  and  turned  them 
wholly  to  His  influence.  Even  here  and  now 
His  work  is  constructive.  The  Kingdom  is  coming 
and  there  are  some  of  the  pillars.  What  a  work 
for  humanity  was  done  that  night  in  Jerusalem, 
and  on  the  journey  north  to  Galilee,  the  Peter  of 
Pentecost,  the  John  of  Gospel,  Epistles  and 
Revelation  won  to  His  side,  not  to  speak  of  the 
other  ministries  which  made  their  mark  on  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

IV.  And  now  let  me  rapidly  describe  the  last 
stage  in  these  early  movements.  Without  any  un¬ 
due  exercise  of  fancy,  can  we  not  realise  the  glow 
which  must  have  filled  the  soul  of  Jesus  as  the 
first  faint  outlines  of  His  mission  took  shape 
before  His  eyes.  The  new  wine  of  the  Kingdom 
was  mantling  in  His  own  veins,  and  therefore, 
with  great  appropriateness  He  prepared  new  joy 
for  the  marriage  feast.  The  significant  point  is 
however,  that  He  cannot  rest.  He  goes  down  to 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


53 


Capernaum,  but  He  does  not  tarry.  Approach¬ 
ing  the  history  from  our  special  angle,  we  discern 
what  is  frequently  passed  over.  His  mind  is  full 
of  His  mission.  The  passion  for  souls  has  come 
down  upon  Elis  soul.  He  would  be  among  the 
throngs  of  men,  and  so  He  takes  advantage  of  the 
Passover  almost  immediately  to  return.  Ele  is 
roused  to  a  strange  sensitiveness  and  moral  in¬ 
tensity.  The  central  purport  of  His  mission 
burns  in  His  heart.  He  longs  to  divulge  the  full 
range  of  God’s  grace,  and  sweep  the  people  into 
the  embrace  of  Divine  love.  Jerusalem,  how¬ 
ever,  is  insensitive  to  His  attractions.  Souls  of 
narrower  mould,  that  have  never  been  wholly  fused 
with  the  fires  of  divine  love,  cannot  understand 
how  prophets  of  fire  can  search  out  from  every 
crevice  the  moral  corruption  of  a  nation  or  city. 
So  Savonarola  searched  out  Florence.  So  in  an 
earlier  day  Isaiah  searched  out  Judah  by  the 
spirit  of  judgment  and  the  spirit  of  burning.  And 
thus  the  very  heart  of  Jerusalem  opened  like  a 
blossom  of  evil  before  Christ. 

Surely  it  is  worth  while,  trying  as  men  may,  to 
live  ourselves  into  the  soul  of  Jesus  at  this  time. 
Do  not  deem  this  an  exercise  of  vagrant  imagina¬ 
tion.  It  need  not  be — for  the  Master  has  said  of 
the  Spirit,  u  He  shall  take  of  mine  and  show  it 
unto  you.”  He  who  was  within  Christ  sustaining 
every  thought,  nerving  for  every  action,  and  so 


54  the  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


building  up  His  human  character,  is  with  us  to 
interpret  that  life.  Think  of  that  transport  of 
holy  indignation  in  which  Christ  gave  Himself 
away,  driving  out  the  cattle,  overthrowing  the 
tables  of  the  money  changers — aflame  with  wrath 
yet  yielded  up  only  to  zeal  for  the  Glory  of  God. 
We  get  exceedingly  near  to  our  Lord  through 
that  self-discovery.  “  I,  only  I,  am  left,”  said 
Elijah,  “  and  they  seek  my  life  to  take  it  away.” 
It  is  the  grief  of  every  prophet  soul,  but  none  ever 
felt  it  as  Christ.  To  see  religion  so  dead  that 
men  could  chaffer  and  higgle  and  cheat  on  the 
altar  steps,  seemed  to  Him  the  apotheosis  of  wrong, 
and  all  the  prudences  and  even  minor  legalities 
are  whelmed  in  the  floodtides  of  holy  anger. 

But  even  more  striking  is,  what  we  would  call 
in  a  man,  the  sorrow  of  disillusion.  He  sees  the 
shapely  corridors,  and  as  He  steps  forth,  the  dream 
of  beauty  which  Herod’s  temple  was  universally 
reputed  to  be.  But  for  Him  it  has  no  loveliness. 
Only  the  dead  carcase  of  religion  is  there.  A  man 
here  would  have  turned  bitter,  and  if  he  were 
coarse  he  would  have  grown  satirical.  But  the 
spectacle  of  evil  only  touched  in  Him  the  love 
that  longed  to  deliver.  In  a  flash  there  came  the 
thought  “after  all  that  is  only  the  shadow  of  the 
true.”  And  in  the  great  love  of  the  Eternal 
Father  that  is  only  opening  the  way  for  the 
founding  of  the  true  temple  of  redeemed  man. 


THE  METHODS  OF  JESUS 


55 


Let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead.  The  new  day  was 
dawning  in  which  through  His  own  death  humanity 
would  be  united  to  God.  “Destroy  this  temple  and 
in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up”  (John  ii.  19). 

The  work  to  which  you  are  called  is  no  pro¬ 
fessional  service.  Your  very  soul  must  be  one 
with  the  will  of  God,  so  one  that  even  your 
passions  are  mastered  and  under  the  control  of 
that  loyalty.  The  sorrow  of  defeat  must  be  your 
sorrow,  as  if  your  own  salvation  were  bound  up 
in  the  issue  ;  even  as  Moses  cried,  “  and  if  not 
blot  me  out  of  Thy  book  which  Thou  hast  written  ” 
(Exod.  xxxii.  32). 

Under  the  spell  of  such  emotions  He  went  for¬ 
ward  to  this  first  Jerusalem  ministry.  It  was  a 
profound  disappointment.  The  very  attachments 
to  His  cause  discovered  the  non-receptivity  of  the 
people  for  the  spiritual.  Yet  His  spirit  rose  in 
fuller  manifestation  to  meet  every  opportunity. 
To  Nicodemus  He  discovered  the  profoundest 
truths  of  the  Kingdom — winning  only  a  secret 
disciple.  There  is  no  open  door  for  Him  in 
Jerusalem.  The  campaign,  entered  on  in  such 
fulness  of  aroused  emotion,  ended  in  failure. 
He  went  out  to  John,  but  even  the  short  interval 
discovered  a  widening  gulf  between  the  Baptist 
and  Himself.  John  was  perfectly  conscious  of 
this,  expressing  it  in  the  words,  “He  must  in¬ 
crease  but  I  must  decrease  ”  (John  iii.  30).  And 


56  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


so,  as  the  Master  left  Jerusalem,  He  bids  fare¬ 
well  to  John.  He  must  follow  His  larger  light 
whithersoever  it  leads.  He  has  more  to  give  to 
men  than  His  fore-runner — the  very  least  in  the 
Kingdom  of  heaven  being  greater  than  he  (Mat. 
xi.  1 1).  And  so  by  what  the  world  would  call 
the  force  of  circumstances,  what  was  really  the 
ordering  of  God’s  providence,  He  is  led  back  to 
a  provincial  sphere  among  the  hills  of  Galilee  and 
by  the  shores  of  the  lake. 

While  in  many  things  so  transcending  mere 
human  vision  and  capacity,  how  closely  does  the 
ministry  of  Christ  lie  to  the  course  of  common 
experience.  How  completely  Christ  lived  within 
human  conditions,  aiming,  resolving,  helped  or 
opposed  by  circumstance,  responding  to  outward 
influences  on  every  key  of  feeling  from  sorrow 
to  indignation,  changing  His  plans  to  face  un¬ 
expected  issues.  Yet  amid  all  He  remained  con¬ 
stant  in  surrender,  and  amid  seeming  defeats  He 
kept  winning  incidental  victories  and  making 
further  advances.  Never  fear  the  clouds  of 
seeming  failure.  Often  the  seeds  of  the  greatest 
victories  are  watered  by  them.  Even  going  back, 
He  won  the  Samaritan  woman,  and  gathered  many 
beside  into  the  fold. 

In  next  lecture  we  shall  see  the  meaning  of  all 
this  preparation  in  the  ministry  that  opened  among 
the  Galilean  Hills. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS 


/ 


Ill 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS 

And  now  we  come  into  the  peculiar  sphere  of 
Christ’s  earthly  ministry  as  addressed  to  the  men 
of  His  own  time.  We  desire  to  learn  the  ground 
which  Christ  occupied,  the  methods  which  He 
pursued.  There  are  reaches  in  His  thought  into 
which  we  do  not  travel.  We  have  to  do  with  His 
human  life,  and  with  His  preaching  and  teaching 
in  relation  to  those  whom  He  addressed.  What 
were  the  lines  of  that  immediate  activity  ?  That 
they  should  be  original  in  the  highest  degree  is 
to  be  expected.  That  they  should  discover  a 
wonderful  insight  into  human  need  and  the  springs 
of  human  aspiration  and  endeavour — after  what 
we  have  seen  is  beyond  doubt.  And  that  we 
should  attain  a  juster  and  profounder  view  of  our 
peculiar  responsibilities,  in  following  Him  afar  off 
as  ministers  of  salvation,  is  confidently  to  be 
hoped. 

So  far  as  visible  results  went  Jesus  Himself 
was  not  conspicuously  successful  as  an  evangelist. 
His  immediate  task  in  the  brief  period  of  His 


59 


6o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


public  ministry,  the  plane  on  which  it  moved,  the 
ends  at  which  it  aimed,  and  the  results  achieved, 
are  so  overshadowed  by  the  events  which  crowned 
His  career  and  the  subsequent  enormous  de¬ 
velopment  of  His  church  and  Kingdom,  that  if 
not  overlooked  they  are  apt  to  be  treated  cursorily 
and  as  of  secondary  interest.  In  Christ’s  whole 
method  of  laying  Himself  out  to  deal  with  men, 
there  is  nevertheless  matter  of  vast  importance 
for  the  conduct  of  an  evangelical  ministry. 

This  study  moreover  is  of  peculiar  value  at  this 
present  time.  We  find  the  Great  Teacher  in  an 
unspiritual  age,  when  men  were  either  sunk  in 
materialism  or  given  up  to  form,  bearing  in  upon 
and  appealing  to  the  human  soul,  moving  on  one 
plane,  but  proving  men  from  many  points  of 
view,  to  arouse  and  draw  them  on  to  the  vision 
and  reception  of  the  grace  and  mercy  of  God. 
Because  of  the  reactionary  forces  of  evil  this  is 
a  work  always  needing  to  be  done.  But  in  the 
present  age,  when  throughout  Europe  and  to  a 
calamitous  extent  in  our  own  land,  vast  masses 
have  been  withdrawn  from  all  interest  in  the 
spiritual,  to  live  content  on  the  flat  secular  level, 
this  discipline  is  absolutely  indispensable.  As  the 
Pauline  ministry  of  grace  created  the  reforma¬ 
tion,  Christ  in  his  method  of  approach  may  take 
captive  the  modern  world. 

But  let  us  turn  to  the  actual  situation  at  the 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  6 1 


point  where  we  broke  off  in  last  lecture.  His 
effort  to  establish  His  ministry  in  the  capital 
had  not  succeeded.  He  renewed  intercourse 
with  John  only  to  find  already  a  difference  of 
scope  in  their  consentaneous  testimonies.  Then 
broke  the  first  note  of  hostility  from  the  Phari¬ 
sees.  As  Dr  Plummer  remarks,1  u  Much  as 
they  disliked  and  feared  the  revolutionary  in¬ 
fluence  of  John  they  feared  that  of  Jesus  still 
more.”  And  to  crown  all,  like  a  clap  of  thunder 
came  the  beheading  of  John  in  Machaerus. 

The  prevailing  insensibility,  the  shallowness 
and  unreality  of  those  who  had  been  attracted  to 
His  ministry,  the  hostile  intent  of  the  Pharisees, 
the  cruelty  of  Herod  all  combined  to  thrust  Him 
back  into  the  obscurity  of  Galilee.  He  was 
not  to  teach  Israel  from  the  standpoint  of 
Jerusalem.  Not  His  even,  to  thrill  the  land  like 
John  from  his  nearer  seclusion.  As  numerous 
teachers,  however,  in  all  ages,  who  have  humbled 
their  souls  in  unmurmuring  submission  to  accept 
the  will  of  God,  have  found,  so  He  who  in  meek¬ 
ness  was  one  of  them,  while  Lord  and  Saviour  of 
them  all,  learned  the  great  lesson,  that  in  utter 
absence  of  all  favouring  circumstances,  yea  in  de¬ 
fiance  of  insuperable  forces  ranged  against  Him, 
the  work  of  God  must  go  on. 

As  fate  shut  Him  into  obscurity,  heaven  opened. 

1  “International  Commentary  on  Luke,”  p.  115.  (T.  &  T.  Clark.) 


62  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


“  He  returned  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  to  Galilee  ” 
(Luke  iv.  14).  Even  amid  the  tentative  efforts  re¬ 
sulting  in  seeming  failure,  He  had  enjoyed  remark¬ 
able  proofs  of  the  power  of  God.  The  free  devotion 
of  those  five  men,  and  still  further,  the  conviction 
and  conversion  of  the  Samaritan  woman,  by  which 
she  was  roused  from  utter  degradation  to  be  a 
brave  and  successful  witness,  not  to  speak  of  the 
immediate  response  of  her  fellow  townsmen,  would 
rejoice  His  heart.  God  was  moving  on  a  plane  of 
His  own  by  powers  in  Himself,  quite  apart  from 
and  above  the  forces  of  the  world.  Accident 
then  was  no  accident,  apparent  hindrance  was  no 
hindrance.  All  that  has  transpired  was  in  the 
counsel  of  God  best  for  the  fulfilment  of  His 
great  design.  The  great  words  recorded  in  Matt, 
xi.  25,  whether  spoken  at  this  time  or  later,  record 
the  vision  and  joy  of  His  Spirit  in  this  hour.  “I 
thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth, 
that  Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise 
and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.” 
“I  thank  thee,”  perhaps  no  words  in  the  Gospels 
have  awakened  greater  wonder  not  to  say  stifled 
incredulity.  But  they  are  not  the  excess  of  an 
overstrained  loyalty.  In  a  man  we  would  call 
them  the  ascent  into  a  clearer  vision  of  the  char¬ 
acteristic  quality  of  his  mission.  Providential 
circumstances  are  leading  the  Son  of  God  more 
articulately  to  express  to  Himself  the  unique  plane 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  63 

and  characteristic  of  His  earthly  ministry.  While 
He  was  in  touch  with  all  that  went  before,  while 
His  mission  was  identical  in  aim  with  the  ministry 
of  John,  being  a  gospel  of  the  Kingdom,  yet  was 
it  to  be  on  a  level  all  its  own.  While  other 
teachers  were  forerunners,  schoolmasters,  Christ, 
as  a  Son  over  His  own  house,  was  to  bring  His 
children  into  the  liberty  and  fellowship  of  His 
Kingdom. 

Perhaps  the  most  characteristic  attribute  of 
genius  is  this,  that  the  writer  brings  a  new  quality 
into  literature,  and  speaks  to  men  on  a  new  plat¬ 
form,  within  a  world  newly  conceived,  yet  embody¬ 
ing  the  richest  fruitage  of  his  age.  No  one  had 
ever  looked  on  nature  in  the  exact  light  of  Words¬ 
worth,  nor  indulged  in  similar  veins  of  reflection. 
His  poems  kindled  a  new  sensibility  in  the  human 
mind,  and  gave  to  cultivated  thought  a  new  bent 
of  fancy  and  quiet  meditation. 

“  The  harvest  of  a  quiet  eye 
That  broods  and  sleeps  on  its  own  heart.” 

That  is  a  pale  human  analogy  of  the  higher  fact 
on  which  I  am  now  insisting.  The  powers  of 
Jesus  were  not  those  of  genius  however  great. 
True,  the  sensibilities  and  intellectual  sweep  of 
genius  were  in  His  human  soul,  but  these  were 
whelmed  and  lost  to  view  not  only  in  His  sainthood, 
but  in  that  consciousness  of  sonship  so  character¬ 
istically  human,  as  occupied  with  an  earthly  life 


64  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


and  death,  but  into  which  there  flowed  a  vision 
of  God,  a  consecrated  purpose,  and  a  width  of  in¬ 
tellectual  or  rather  spiritual  horizon  which  remove 
Him  from  the  measures  of  the  merely  human,  and 
suggest  irresistibly,  all  dogma  apart,  the  indwelling 
Divine. 

But  by  how  much  Jesus  stands  above  the  level 
of  mere  genius  does  this  quality  of  genius  stand 
out  in  Him.  Fie  has  sounded  the  full  meaning  of 
that  phrase  Kingdom  of  God.  As  vegetable  life 
stands  above  the  realm  of  the  inorganic,  and 
animal  life  above  vegetable,  and  mind  above  both, 
and  over  all  these  the  realm  of  moral  personality — 
so  in  turn  these  were  to  find  their  goal  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  which  from  above  should  unite 
the  created  to  the  uncreated,  man  to  God.  Look 
at  the  Johannine  sequence  in  chap.  i. :  “  The 
Word  was  in  the  beginning  with  God  ”  (v.  2). 
“All  things  were  made  by  Him”  (v.  3).  “In 
Him  was  life  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men  ” 
(v.  4).  “And  the  Word  was  made  flesh”  (v.  14). 
He  was  the  way,  the  truth,  the  life  by  which  the 
last,  the  crowning  junction  was  to  be  made.  Now, 
just  because  He  was  to  occupy  this  special  sphere 
laying  hold  of  the  spiritual  appetencies,  the  sense 
of  spiritual  need  in  man,  it  was  a  distinct  advantage 
to  deal  with  simple  natures  in  whom  the  lower 
gifts  were  less  developed.  Even  inventors  and 
discoverers  feel  that  their  strongest  opponents  are 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  65 


often  the  men  who  have  amassed  knowledge  up 
to  the  limits  from  which  they  would  advance. 
The  Pharisees  would  bring  in  their  traditions,  the 
Sadducees  their  sceptical  doubts.  The  plain  people 
were  more  simply  conscious  of  their  needs  and 
therefore  lay  more  open  to  the  divine.  u  I  thank 
thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth,  became 
Thou  hast  hid  these  things  from  the  wise  and 
prudent  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes.” 

The  passage  from  which  we  purpose  deducing 
in  detail  the  distinctive  method  of  Jesus,  is  the 
narrative  of  His  inaugural  discourse  in  Nazareth, 
by  which  He  opened  His  public  Galilean  ministry. 
He  has  come  back  home  to  promulgate  His  pro¬ 
gramme.  How  Luke  alone  should  have  preserved 
an  account  of  this  incident  is  to  us  a  mystery. 
There  are  two  passages  in  Matt.  xiii.  53-58,  and 
Mark  vi.  1-6,  which  it  is  possible  may  refer  to 
the  same  incident,  but  if  so  they  leave  entirely 
out  the  characteristic  features  of  Luke’s  narrative. 
Most  likely  these  belong  to  other  and  more  ordinary 

occasions,  while  it  has  been  reserved  to  Luke  to 

*  «**. 

give  us  this  graphic  delineation  in  the  life  of 
Christ. 

At  such  a  moment  one  pauses  with  reverence  to 
take  in  the  scene.  How  many  places  there  are, 
mostly  solitary  and  apart,  sacred  because  of 
descents  of  God  on  select  spirits  of  the  race  ?  The 
desert  thorn  where  broke  on  Moses  the  I  am, 

E 


66  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


the  plain  outside  Damascus  where  Paul  saw  a 
light  above  that  of  the  sun,  the  fig-tree  in  Milan 
beneath  which  the  will  of  Augustine  was  bowed, 
Erfurt  and  Wittenberg,  twin  centres  of  a  mighty 
regeneration.  But  none  come  so  near  to  us  as  this 
of  Nazareth  within  her  guardian  hills.  Where 
as  a  boy  He  had  worshipped,  in  the  very  place  in 
which  the  purpose  of  God  had  unrolled  before 
Him,  and  He  had  wakened  to  discern  His  own 
place  in  the  eternal  counsel,  Jesus  stood  forth  now 
to  unfold  His  clearly-conceived,  definitely  accepted 
mission — what  has  proved  to  be  the  central  mission 
of  time,  which  was  to  link  mankind  to  God. 

Let  us  leave  the  mere  setting,  however,  and 
enter  into  the  inwardness  of  Christ’s  thought.  He 
found  fit  vehicle  for  the  deepest  thoughts  of  that 
hour  in  a  word  of  ancient  prophecy  (Is.  lxi.  1-2). 
The  starting-point  of  the  full  vision  of  God  is  to 
be  found  in  the  clearer  apprehension  of  a  past 
vision.  Mayhap  long  before,  in  that  very  sanc¬ 
tuary,  ere  the  yoke  of  ministry  had  come,  Jesus 
had  leaped  to  a  foresight  of  what  His  ministry 
would  be,  as  the  Rabbi  read  this  passage  in 
ordinary  course.  At  least,  however,  there  is  a 
lesson  for  us  in  this  fact.  For  the  common,  in¬ 
deed  the  universal  custom  to  preach  from  a  text, 
there  is  far  more  justification  than  we  sometimes 
think.  In  human  speculation  we  move  away  from 
the  past  to  the  future.  In  the  vision  of  God  we 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  67 


grow  up  from  the  all-sustaining  root  of  His 
declared  will,  to  more  articulate  developments  of 
that  will ;  in  other  words,  to  a  larger  self-conscious¬ 
ness  of  what  that  will  implied.  There  is  an 
historical  element  in  Holy  Scripture — a  gradual 
unfolding  within  advancing  human  conditions  of 
spiritual  truth  ;  but  within  this  outer  sheath  there  is 
the  essential  unity  of  an  eternal  counsel,  in  the  hand 
of  One  who  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning. 

Turning  to  the  words  as  they  lie  in  Isaiah,  we 
shall  not  conduct  an  inquiry  into  what  they  meant, 
within  the  limited  vision  of  the  prophet,  and 
what  new  articulateness  they  had  won  from  the 
progression  of  religious  thought  through  the 
ages.  What  breathes  a  bloom  and  glory  into 
these  words,  and  raises  them  to  a  transcendent 
importance  which  their  author  never  conceived, 
lies  in  the  fact  that  Christ  claimed  them  for  Him¬ 
self,  said  plainly  it  is  in  Me  these  words  are  ful¬ 
filled.  The  greatness  of  the  passage  is  seen  first, 
in  the  beginning  of  its  accomplishment  through 
Christ. 

To  receive  Christ’s  thought  about  Himself  in 
relation  to  His  whole  mission — surely  that  is 
something  to  wait  for  with  empty  and  purged 
spirits,  to  take  as  given  with  the  simplicity  of 
submissive  wills,  and  handle  with  care  to  introduce 
no  bias  of  our  own.  I  notice  first,  then,  some¬ 
thing  absolutely  new.  He  speaks  from  within 


68  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


the  unclouded  circle  of  the  divine  fellowship. 
He  comes  forth  with  a  commission  from  God. 
Here  is  no  prophet  like  Isaiah  crying  before  the 
divine  glory,  u  Woe  is  me  for  I  am  undone,  I  am 
a  man  of  unclean  lips,”  and  then  when  purged 
and  strengthened,  made  bold  to  offer  himself, 
“Here  am  I,  send  me”  (Is.  vi.  5,  8).  True,  there 
is  no  formal  assertion  of  divinity,  but  there  is  an 
unquailing  consciousness  of  unhindered  surrender 
to  the  divine  Spirit,  and  of  His  whole  being  chiming 
and  in  accord  with  the  holy  Spirit  possessing  Him. 
And  as  thus  one  with  God  in  the  full  conscious¬ 
ness  of  His  life,  He  comes  forth  from  God  with  a 
commission  to  carry  good  tidings  from  the  divine 
Being. 

The  supernatural  character  of  His  mission,  the 
transcendental  basis  of  that  message,  struck  the 
open  minds  of  that  old  world,  immersed  in  the 
natural,  with  irrepressible  wonder.  And  as  un¬ 
belief,  and  in  its  measure  criticism,  are  driving  us 
back  within  the  limits  of  the  natural,  they  are 
creating  a  situation  of  mist  and  uncertainty  and 
gloom,  from  which  men  will  advance  again  to 
accept  Christ  on  the  footing  of  His  own  revelation, 
— one  with  God,  commissioned  from  God,  with  a 
direct  communication  from  the  Divine  of  good 
tidings  to  men, — something  from  first  to  last  out 
of  the  plane  of  the  natural,  the  very  crown  of 
God’s  manifestation. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  69 


Now  if  that  be  so,  and  there  can  be  no  dubiety 
that  that  is  what  Christ  says,  then  Christianity 
has  a  place  in  history  and  in  the  life  of  each  man ; 
and  the  Christian  ministry  has  a  centrality  to  human 
need,  and  a  supremacy  among  human  concerns, 
which  multitudes  of  Christian  men  totally  fail 

J 

to  realise.  Christianity  is  not  one  among  the 
religions  of  the  world,  if  the  crown  of  them 
all.  They  are  aspirations  toward  God :  this  is  a 
revelation  from  God.  We  rejoice  in  every  gleam 
of  light  which  they  contain,  in  every  aspiration 
towards  a  loftier  than  material  good,  and  bold 
feeling  after  a  divine  fulfilment.  But  in  Christ 
and  His  revelation,  God  hath  spoken,  and  we  have 
found  the  verity  of  salvation  and  eternal  life  in 
Him.  In  other  words,  what  Christ  said  at 
Nazareth  has  been  verified  in  the  experience  of 
millions  through  nineteen  centuries. 

Having  thus  from  Christ’s  own  words  developed 
the  solitary  platform  on  which  He  stood  in  ap¬ 
proaching  men,  let  us  now  consider  His  programme, 
or  rather  the  distinctive  method  He  adopted  in 
approaching  men  and  attracting  them  to  Himself. 
One  can  discern  that  His  thoughts  are  moving 
on  lines  similar  to  those  expressed  in  the  new 
covenant  of  grace  taught  by  Ezekiel  (xxxvi.  25-27). 
There,  the  sprinkling,  the  new  heart,  the  right 
spirit  were  all  to  be  of  grace.  So  here  He  comes 
forth  full  of  the  Spirit,  anointed  for  service,  to 


70  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

transact  with  those  who  are  poor,  broken,  captive, 
helpless.  All  the  resources  are  in  or  with  Him, 
His  message  is  from  above.  He  must  find  them 
where  they  are,  awaken  the  first  stirring  of  hope, 
interpret  them  to  themselves,  enable  them  to 
realise  their  misery,  their  poverty,  their  captivity, 
their  blindness,  their  bruises,  and  rouse  them  to 
receive  what  He  came  to  bring,  as  glad  tidings, 
release,  sight,  liberty  from  the  galling  chain. 
When  one  sinks  into  the  meaning  of  His  figures, 
one  sees  how  entirely  the  whole  work  was  to  be 
of  Him,  the  awaking,  the  consciousness  of  need, 
the  felt  sense  of  misery,  the  impulse  to  escape 
from  misery,  the  sight  of  the  gospel  as  God’s 
way  of  escape,  so  that  they  might  take  the  de¬ 
cisive  step  of  faith  into  liberty. 

The  wonderful  thing  about  this  passage— 
what  comes  first  and  remains  last,  is  Christ’s 
exalted  consciousness  of  an  endowment  of  the 
Spirit,  so  plenary,  and  an  anointing  and  dedication 
so  divine,  for  what  seems  to  men  so  lowly  a  task. 
He  saw,  when  as  yet  no  man  understood,  the 
divineness  of  the  work  of  winning  broken  lives 
back  to  God  and  liberty — more  even  than  is 
spoken  of  here,  for  the  objective  act  of  atonement 
must  also  come  in.  That,  however,  lay  in  the 
future.  What  impresses  us  here  as  of  momentous 
importance  for  us  who  are  following  Him  in 
ministry  to  men,  is  the  consciousness  of  Christ, 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  71 


that  only  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  could  He 
lay  bare  men  to  themselves,  read  out  every  secret 
of  their  hearts,  raise  them  to  look  at  the  facts 
of  their  case  and  so  draw  them  to  God.  Further, 
in  that  answering  of  the  hearts  of  men  to  Himself, 
by  this  arresting  power  of  the  Spirit,  there  was 
God’s  express  and  original  witness  to  the  fact 
that  Christ  carried  a  commission  from  Him,  that 
a  divine  day  of  opportunity  had  dawned.  What 
was  the  meaning  of  this  searching  light  and 
power  if  not  as  witness  to  these  facts.  Thus 
did  Christ  lean  on  the  Holy  Spirit  authenticating 
His  mission.  From  such  a  plane  did  He  essay 
to  go  forth  to  men.  In  such  an  all-embracing 
compassion  of  succour  did  He  stoop  to  them.  To 
such  a  deliverance  in  fellowship  with  God  would 
He  raise  them.  Countless  words  confirm  this  as 
the  central  all-embracing  aim  of  His  ministry. 
When  John  sent  to  ask,  u  Art  Thou  He  that  should 
come  ” — almost  as  if  He  were  recalling  this  scene 
and  the  programme  which  He  had  enunciated  at 
this  place,  Jesus  spoke  of  this  work  of  interpreting 
and  meeting  human  need,  in  phrases  similar  to 
those  in  this  passage.  And  then  as  if  vindicating 
the  essentials  of  His  mission  and  message  before 
those  who  might  not  be  able  to  enter  into  its 
significance,  Jesus  utters  an  almost  minatory  sent¬ 
ence,  u  and  blessed  is  he  whosoever  shall  not  be 
offended  in  Me.” 


72  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


We  have  reached  a  fundamental  point  in  this 
course  and  in  our  view  of  the  missionary  methods 
of  Jesus.  “As  my  Father  hath  sent  Me,  even  so 
send  I  you”  (John  xx.  21).  On  this  platform 
does  He  approach  men.  On  this  platform  must  we 
approach  them  if  we  would  be  His  true  followers 
and  finish  His  work.  The  Spirit  of  Truth  who 
continually  proceedeth  from  the  Father  bears  wit¬ 
ness  of  Christ  in  His  servants,  and  out  of  the 
fulness  of  that  illumination  the  servants  bear  wit¬ 
ness  (John  xv.  26).  “He  shall  glorify  Me,  for 
He  shall  receive  of  Mine  and  shall  shew  it  unto 
you”  (John  xvi.  14).  Believing,  then,  that  our 
ministry  in  its  main  lines  follows  that  of  the 
Master,  being  a  service  to  which  we  are  called 
and  commissioned  by  God,  and  for  which  we  are 
empowered  by  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  the  end  being 
the  communication  of  the  divine  message  of  love 
and  grace  to  a  lost  world,  let  us  marshal  under 
separate  heads  its  distinctive  features. 

1.  The  Gospel  ministry  moves  on  a  peculiar 
plane  of  its  own,  being  a  proclamation  to  man 
of  the  revealed  will  of  God. 

2.  As  when  Christ  said,  “this  day  is  this 
Scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears,”  it  is  still  pro¬ 
claimed  by  men  who  themselves  stand  rooted  in 
their  own  age,  and  have  grown  up  within  human 
conditions.  They  are  necessarily  involved  in  the 
thoughts  and  aims  of  their  own  generations,  and 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  73 


so  in  the  very  conception  as  in  the  presentation 
of  their  message,  they  adjust  it  to  the  needs  of 
their  own  time.  And  so  what  comes  from  beyond 
time,  the  unchanging  counsel  of  God  becomes 
suited  as  a  special  and  characteristic  message  for 
each  age. 

3.  To  receive  and  convey  this  revealed  will  of 
God,  the  preacher  requires  himself  to  be  in 
realised  union  with  God,  to  live  under  the  power 
of  the  Spirit,  and  in  especial  to  be  in  the  hand 
of  the  Spirit,  to  be  taught,  upheld,  and  led  in 
all  public  service. 

4.  Along  with  this  endowment  and  inherent  in 
it,  is  the  alienable  consciousness  that  he  has  been 
called  of  God,  and  so  may  count  on  help  in  this 
work. 

5.  The  subject  matter  of  his  preaching  is  the 
Gospel  or  good  news  of  God  communicated  by 
Jesus  Christ,  which  have  been  proved  in  ex¬ 
perience  to  be  the  message  of  God  to  his  own 
soul,  and  which  are  not  merely  his  individual 
findings,  but  those  also  of  the  living  Church  in 
whose  communion  he  stands,  and  of  all  Christians 
and  Churches  back  to  the  fountain  of  revelation. 

6.  As  the  Gospel  has  become  the  living 
possession  of  his  soul  and  the  spring  of  a  trans¬ 
formed  life,  through  the  witness  and  action  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  his  testimony  to  others  appeals  directly 
and  immediately  to  the  spiritual  appetencies  that 


74  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


are  in  every  man.  In  paving  the  way  for  reaching 
to  man’s  soul  he  may  and  will  employ  fact,  analogy, 
history,  argument,  but  he  addresses  that  whole 
region  of  man  that  fronts  God,  and  so  he  leans 
upon  the  Holy  Spirit  in  forming  every  thought  and 
uttering  every  word. 

7.  Since  men  are  only  conscious  of  the  void  in 
their  natures  by  being  made  conscious  of  their 
divorce  from  God  for  Whom  they  were  made, 
it  lies  with  the  preacher  to  put  himself  in  their 
place,  interpret  them  to  themselves,  discovering  to 
them  their  need,  creating  the  desire  to  have  it 
satisfied,  and  then  showing  them  the  full  present 
satisfaction  in  Christ.  This  can  only  be  done, 
however,  by  the  Holy  Spirit  irradiating  the 
preacher’s  own  life,  and  giving  him  a  resistless 
power  of  entering  into  the  secrets  of  other  lives, 
so  that  they  are  laid  bare  before  God,  and  God  in 
impressive  reality  is  brought  near  to  them. 

8.  Even  when  thus  illumined  and  empowered, 
the  preacher  cannot  of  himself  achieve  the  supreme 
result  of  bringing  men  to  God.  These  creative 
results  are  always  kept  in  God’s  own  hand.  The 
servant  must  commit  himself  in  every  utterance 
as  a  vessel  prepared  for  God  to  use.  Every  new 
creation  is  an  act  of  God’s  power  through  a  conse¬ 
crated  will,  God  immediately  meeting  men  through 
the  creative  act  of  His  Spirit,  an  element  of  Divine 
sovereignty  going  to  every  such  product. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  75 


9.  The  preacher,  then,  is  in  the  hand  of  God, 
to  carry  out  the  sovereign  will  of  God  as  He  may 
momentarily  lead.  His  call  is  his  warrant  to 
speak  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  the  felt 
witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  making  living  the 
testimony  of  Christ  to  his  own  and  other  hearts, 
his  authority. 

10.  For  him  all  men  stand  in  one  rank  as  made 
by  God,  yet  without  God  and  needing  Him  as  the 
one  good.  Yet  while  making  no  difference,  since 
all  are  afflicted  with  a  common  need,  the  preacher 
knows  that  God  is  working  His  own  purpose 
through  him  which  the  event  only  will  declare. 
Even  the  reception  and  rejection  of  the  message 
are  in  the  hand  of  God.  As  Jesus  says  else¬ 
where,  u  All  that  the  Father  giveth  Me  shall 
come  to  Me.” 

Such  is  the  ministry  of  the  soul-winner,  surely 
the  most  august  on  this  earth.  Into  such  alliance 
with  Himself  and  His  Spirit  does  God  call  us. 
The  forces  of  the  Eternal  must  make  their  home 
in  us,  that  they  may  work  to  results  of  conviction 
and  renewal,  transcending  all  simply  natural  ex¬ 
perience.  And  yet  more,  these  spiritual  powers 
must  be  in  the  hand  of  God,  keys  on  which  He 
may  play  as  it  sovereignly  pleases  Him.  When  a 
Paul  is  brought  out  of  blindness  and  bondage  to 
liberty  at  the  word  of  an  Ananias,  we  feel  that  a 
mighty  unseen  power  must  have  intervened.  But 


76  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


although  the  effects  are  not  so  striking  in  the  eyes 
of  the  world,  the  same  outflashing  of  divine  power 
is  unmistakable  whenever  a  soul  turns  to  God. 
And  if  we  would  be  followers  of  Christ  and  renew 
the  experiences  of  apostolic  and  revival  days,  we 
must  regard  ourselves  as  heralds  or  messengers  of 
Christ,  and  seek  to  be  in  His  hand  for  just  such 
wonders  of  His  power  through  our  own  ministry. 

Preaching,  indeed,  has  in  many  cases  fallen  to  a 
much  lower  level,  from  which,  whatever  else  may 
be  accomplished,  the  great  work  of  God  cannot  be 
done.  Stopping  short  of  the  momentous  fact  that 
in  the  Gospel  we  have  a  positive  communication 
from  the  heart  of  God  to  men,  much  preaching 
moves  on  terrene  levels  and  in  the  power  of  a  mere 
natural  persuasiveness  from  beginning  to  end. 
Often  it  is  no  more  than  a  professional  statement 
of  the  Church’s  position,  an  apologetic  for  the 
faith  on  grounds  of  reason,  a  reduction  of 
positive  doctrine  to  broad  human  ethical  prin¬ 
ciples  immediately  perceptible  by  the  natural 
man,  a  purely  prophetic  exposition  of  individual 
and  social  duty,  or  of  Christ  as  the  ideal  man 
— enunciating  a  new  law  of  public  and  private 
conduct.  In  a  word,  the  preaching  goes  more  to 
spiritual  self-culture,  the  perfecting  of  a  present 
human  ideal,  than  to  the  communication  of  a 
Divine  message  having  in  it  the  promise  and 
potency  of  eternal  life,  and  a  heavenly  kingdom 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  77 


proclaimed  on  the  authority  and  with  the  power 
of  God. 

And  thus,  so  far  as  this  may  be  the  case,  there 
are  certain  very  conspicuous  lacks,  which  if  they 
are  not  met  may  issue  in  a  great  catastrophe.  The 
Churches  can  only  live  and  grow  through  the 
sustained  respect  and  reverence  of  peoples  blessed 
by  their  influence,  and  recognising  in  them  channels 
of  divine  grace  and  power.  There  are,  indeed, 
certain  considerations  which  for  a  time  may  obscure 
to  partial  eyes  the  action  of  that  law.  The  benefits 
associated  with  religious  services  and  institutions 
are  of  such  a  kind — meeting  man  in  the  deeps  of 
his  being,  forming  pure  and  beautiful  characters, 
setting  in  motion  philanthropic  movements,  creat¬ 
ing  wide  horizons  of  thought  and  generating  noble 
impulses — that  they  continue  to  inspire  a  hereditary 
respect,  after  power  has  disappeared  from  the 
Church’s  testimony  and  true  aggressive  activity 
has  ceased.  But  that  can  only  be  for  a  time. 
The  hungers  and  miseries  of  men  are  inextinguish¬ 
able  ;  and  if  the  multitude  waken  up  to  realise 
that  the  Church  has  no  authentic  message  from 
God  to  their  souls,  no  manifest  proof  that  God  is 
working  by  her  to  the  renewal  and  sanctification 
of  men,  they  will  utterly  disregard  or  in  bitter 
mockery  turn  again  and  rend  her. 

Those  who  are  in  course  of  preparation  for  the 
ministry  are  facing  a  momentous  crisis  in  the 


78  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


history  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  Indeed,  beneath 
that,  lies  the  rooted  conviction  in  every  reflecting 
mind  that  enormous  changes  are  impending  in  the 
kingdom  of  man.  The  nations  are  leaving  the 
stereotyped  and  bounded  relations  of  recent 
centuries,  and  are  floating  out  into  combinations 
and  eventualities  which  no  man  can  foresee.  And 
all  this  imposes  a  burden  of  care  upon  every 
teacher  aspiring  to  help  his  fellow-man,  of  a  very 
solemn  description.  To  catch  up  with  present 
fashions  is  to  tie  our  careers  not  merely  to  a 
fleeting  cloud,  but  to  an  explosive  bomb.  Many 
movements  of  high  repute  will  be  shattered. 
Elements  which  we  are  told  to-day  must  vanish 
will  abide,  and  vaunted  ideal  schemes  which  we 
are  told  are  to  take  their  place  will  dissipate  and 
disappear.  Where  to  cast  our  grappling  irons  so 
as  to  get  a  grip  of  the  central  trend,  and  move  on 
with  it  to  victory,  is  not  easy  to  discern. 

As  one  sees  multitudes  of  eager  minds  setting 
their  house  in  order  to  meet  the  strain  of  the 
coming  times — going  back  over  the  past  to  re¬ 
state  on  natural  lines  the  Christian  faith — there  is 
a  word  of  Christ  which,  like  a  ruffling  breeze, 
breaks  athwart  these  clashing  speculations  of  man. 
“Can  ye  not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times?” 
The  past  is  past.  It  has  gone  from  us.  We  can 
only  discern  it  in  parts  and  at  angles,  through  the 
researches  of  individual  men.  Christianity  lives  for 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  7 9 


us  in  its  achievements  up  to  and  in  the  present 
hour.  In  the  new  birth  of  millions,  in  the  re¬ 
juvenation  of  the  ancient  world,  in  higher  ideals 
of  personal  purity  and  public  virtue,  in  a  diffusive 
charity  and  an  expansive  sense  of  brotherhood,  in 
the  passion  for  liberty,  enlightenment,  right  and 
spiritual  redemption,  knowing  no  limit  short  of  the 
habitable  globe,  she  has  thus  far  given  sample  and 
proof  of  the  wholly  unequalled  powers  at  work 
within  her.  And  when  Christianity  has  gone  thus 
far  on  lines  peculiarly  her  own,  and,  in  the  century 
just  past,  has  revealed  a  new  power  of  adaptation 
to  nations  and  empires  hitherto  lying  outside  the 
sphere  of  her  influence,  surely  the  reasonable 
assumption  is  that  for  those  who  hold  the  faith, 
and  follow  Christ,  and  prove  His  power,  there  are 
more  wonderful  victories  in  store. 

The  fact  of  Christendom  is  a  fact  as  much  as 
any  other,  must  be  studied  from  within,  in  full 
light  of  all  its  characteristic  features.  What  the 
faith  was  which  actually  founded  and  instrument- 
ally  sustained  this  regenerative  force  in  the  world, 
is  also  an  ascertained  fact.  What  is  to  be  attained 
by  going  back  to  the  times  of  Christ,  and  with  the 
help  of  theories  of  natural  evolution  trying  to  put 
a  construction  on  Christ’s  teaching  and  aims,  which 
were  not  the  view  of  those  who  immediately  ab¬ 
sorbed  Christ’s  influence  and  laid  the  foundation 
of  His  Kingdom  ?  Whom  has  this  method  of 


8o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


demonstration  been  proposed  to  help  ?  Christi¬ 
anity  has  stood  from  the  beginning  on  supernatural 
foundations.  It  approaches  all  men  with  a  challenge 
to  faith  in  a  divine  communication.  It  declares 
that  without  an  inner  renewal  of  the  soul  by  divine 
power,  men  can  neither  see  nor  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  God  (John  iii.).  It  will  not  re¬ 
ceive  those  who  are  willing  to  accept  it  as  a 
natural  development.  To  experience  the  spiritual 
fruits  of  redemption,  we  must  come  on  to  Christ’s 
own  ground.  And  when  we  find  that  the  actual 
outcome  of  this  re-statement  is  to  represent  the 
unique  and  characteristic  facts  of  the  Gospels  as 
no  facts,  neither  the  virgin  birth  nor  the  bodily 
resurrection,  neither  the  miracles  nor  this  inner 
consciousness  of  absolute  oneness  with  God  ;  and 
still  further  that  the  entire  narrative  is  overloaded 
with  imaginative  additions  of  legend  and  dogma, 
the  facile  growth  of  apostolic  credulity — what  are 
we  to  say  ?  Writers  of  this  school  are  not  attempt¬ 
ing  to  account  for  a  thing  which  we  never  saw, 
but  for  a  reality  which  we  have  proved,  a  revela¬ 
tion  which  has  transfigured  our  souls,  a  fellowship 
with  God  into  which  we  have  entered,  and  more,  a 
power  whose  public  effects  on  the  life  of  mankind 
are  matters  of  patent  fact  to  this  day.  And  the 
Christian  consciousness  rejects  the  whole  explana¬ 
tion  as  beneath  the  meaning  and  import  of  the  work 
which  Christ  has  done  and  is  doing  among  men. 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  8i 

If  many  preachers,  instead  of  weaving  theories 
that  have  presuppositions  of  their  own  as  their  sole 
justification,  would  listen  to  the  voice  of  Christ, 
“Can  ye  not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times  ?  ”  they 
would  be  rudely  awakened.  The  Christian  docu¬ 
ments  as  they  conceive  of  them  would  never  have 
originated  the  apostolic  Church  ;  nor,  left  to  them¬ 
selves,  could  they  with  all  their  apparatus  of  critical 
illumination  perpetuate  the  Christian  Church  of 
this  latest  age  for  twenty  years.  The  supernatural 
truths  which  they  so  ruthlessly  eliminate,  form  the 
adamant  foundations  of  the  Faith.  The  world  is 
witness  to  what  the  halting  beliefs  of  a  scarcely 
veiled  rationalism  are  working  in  our  time.  The 
grand  indictment  against  the  Church  is  the  evapora¬ 
tion  of  spiritual  concern,  the  descent  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  to  secular  levels  and  a  contented 
living  within  secular  horizons.  One  can  discern 
this  pervading  society  in  every  direction.  Pleasure, 
and  the  pursuit  and  enjoyment  of  material  good, 
absorb  attention  and  interest,  almost  to  the  ex¬ 
clusion  of  every  other  thought.  Look  at  the 
literature  which  the  multitude  read — not  an  ideal 
element,  or  aught  beyond  the  excitements  and 
diversions  of  the  selfish  life.  Nothing  is  sacred  in 
institution,  or  holy  in  character,  to  their  restless  and 
insatiate  egoism.  They  can  appreciate  association 
for  social  or  trade  ends,  in  the  absence  of  other 
deities  they  magnify  the  State,  and  to  escape  local 


82  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


industrial  jealousies  would  nationalise  more  and 
more  the  chief  industries.  But  Sunday  is  becoming 
a  day  for  their  pleasure  :  they  gather  by  thousands 
around  bands,  where  their  fathers  would  have  stood 
spell-bound  under  the  preaching  of  the  Word.  The 
spiritual — not  merely  as  the  conscious  fellowship 
with  God — but  as  the  bare  consciousness  of  a  God 
to  be  obeyed  and  loved — and  eternity  as  the  sphere 
of  their  higher  existence,  have  lapsed  from  their 
conscious  life.  Religion  as  the  private  opinion  of 
those  who  want  it  may  be  tolerated,  but  with  no 
recognised  claim  on  others,  or  title  to  speak  with 
any  supernatural  authority. 

That  condition  of  things  must  go  on  to  worse  if 
it  be  not  arrested,  and  that  soon.  As  yet  there 
are  hereditary  reverences,  lingering  in  those  who 
are  frankly  living  for  the  present.  Inherited 
standards  of  judgment,  from  robuster  Christian 
times,  sway  lives  that  are  out  of  keeping  with 
them,  living  on  a  lower  plane.  But  there  are 
evidences  not  a  few,  that  as  the  claim  of  Christ  is 
ignored,  the  ethics  of  Christ  will  disappear.  It 
was  His  gospel,  the  enunciation  of  the  divine 
Kingdom,  the  birth  of  men  into  life  eternal,  the 
joy  of  communion  with  God — in  short,  it  was  a 
life  above  the  world  which  established  an  ethics 
above  the  world.  And  when  He  is  rejected  and 
ceases  to  be  powerfully  preached  in  that  supreme 
relation,  His  ethics  become  depraved  to  the  ethics 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  83 


of  the  market-place,  stoic  self-sufficiency  or 
epicurean  ease. 

To  accentuate  the  divorce  of  modern  man  from 
God,  we  have  instead  of  the  Scripture  doctrine  of 
creation,  the  theory  of  a  struggle  for  existence 
and  a  survival  of  the  fittest.  Now,  do  not  suppose 
that  I  fail  to  appreciate  the  value  of  evolution  as  a 
method,  or  its  harmonies  with  the  spiritual  view. 
What  has  commended  this  theory  to  the  multitude, 
however,  has  been  the  supposed  elimination  of  a 
directing  mind,  the  apparent  justification  for  the 
belief  that  this  was  a  huge  gamble  of  a  universe, 
where  out  of  an  undirected  strife  certain  things 
came  uppermost.  For  right  and  love  has  been 
substituted  force ;  for  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
a  bastard  imperialism ;  for  missionary  enthusiasm, 
an  exploitation  of  the  black  races  on  behalf  of  the 
commercial  supremacy  of  the  white  •  for  healthful 
rivalry,  the  crushing  power  of  all-controlling 
combines.  Interests — like  the  huge  drink  traffic — 
thriving  on  human  degradation,  lift  up  their  heads 
in  proud  security.  Gambling  has  spread  its  net¬ 
work  of  demoralisation  over  all  the  land,  and 
even  leading  journals  can  speak  of  legislation 
against  betting,  as  an  organised  hypocrisy.  Sport 
has  become  a  supreme  national  interest,  and  men 
can  go  on  acclaiming  their  favourite  team,  when 
the  dead  and  the  dying  are  being  extracted  from 
collapsing  jerry-built  stands  on  the  playing-field. 


84  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Account  must  be  taken  likewise  of  the  pro¬ 
foundly  materialist  foundation  of  modern  socialism 
among  the  masses  not  only  of  Britain  but  of 
Europe.  As  Leroy  Beaulieu  says,  “The  State 
remains  the  sole  God  of  the  modern  world.” 
Marx — the  Bacon  of  Socialism — rests  his  doctrine 
not  on  justice,  not  on  a  sentimental  love  of  man 
which  he  never  mentions  without  immeasurable 
scorn,  but  on  the  blind  growth  of  productive 
forces  which  must  in  the  end  swallow  up  the 
capitalist.  Social  democracy  in  Germany  u  denies 
wholly  and  unreservedly  any  spiritual  purpose  in 
the  universe.”  “Arsene  Dumont  anticipates  the 
day  when  the  hypothesis  of  God  shall  be  expelled 
from  human  brains.”  u  The  great  European 
narcotic  of  Christianity  with  its  ideals  of  sympathy 
and  brotherly  love  has  been  keeping  the  natural 
superior — the  strong  out  of  his  own.”  “A  new 
table,  O  my  brethren,  I  put  over  you.  Become 
hard.  For  we  are  emancipated.  The  world 
belongs  to  us,  we  are  the  strongest.  And  if  men 
do  not  give  us  these  things,  we  take  them.” 

Benjamin  Kidd,  in  his  u  Principles  of  Western 
Civilisation,”  declares  that  those  utterances  which 
I  have  quoted  from  him,  even  the  last  extreme 
saying  by  Nietzsche,  proceed  from  the  materialistic 
interpretation  of  history,  and  express  without 
varnish  or  apology  the  true  issue  of  present  theory. 
If  these  statements  do  not  suffice  I  might  add  much 


THE  DISTINCTIVE  METHOD  OF  JESUS  85 


more  to  show  that  emasculated  religions  are  of  no 
use  in  the  struggle  immediately  before  us.  The 
one  standpoint  for  this  age  is  Christ’s  standpoint, 
the  one  gospel  His  gospel,  the  one  power  the 
power  of  the  divine  Spirit.  The  unredeemed  evil 
in  human  nature  laughs  to  scorn  human  idealisms. 
The  one  thing  which  will  suffice  is  that  men 
be  saved  from  themselves  by  being  brought  to 
God,  through  Christ  and  by  the  ministry  of  the 
Spirit.  Only  preachers  who  are  actually  in  the 
hand  of  God,  and  filled  with  His  power,  and  carry¬ 
ing  a  divine  testimony  of  pardon  and  redemption 
verified  in  their  own  experience,  have  a  message 
worth  speaking  about  to  this  age.  There  must  be 
the  answer  by  fire,  the  appeal  to  and  manifestation 
of  Divine  renewing  might.  The  whole  world-view 
of  men  must  be  changed — as  God  only  can  change 
it — by  bringing  out  their  dependence,  their  guilt, 
their  oblivion  of  the  highest  meaning  of  life,  in 
opposition  to  this  egoism.  Philosophy  will  not  do 
that ;  a  wider  and  saner  view  of  life  will  not  of 
itself  shame  men  from  their  selfish  materialism. 
For  this  is  a  spirit  of  rebellion  far  more  than  a 
theory — the  unsubdued  hostility  of  man  to  God. 
“  This  kind  goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer  and 
fasting.”  The  only  countervailing  force  in  all 
the  world  is  the  Spirit  of  God,  in  a  Church 
wholly  yielded  to  Him — u  convincing  of  sin  and 
of  righteousness  and  of  judgment.” 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 
HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF 


r 


IV 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 
HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF 


We  have  now  seen  the  distinctive  standpoint  of 
Jesus.  He  speaks  from  within  the  circle  of 
fellowship  with  God,  to  that  in  man  which 
hungers  for  God.  His  plans,  His  point  of  view, 
His  objective,  are  all  unique.  And  it  is  ours 
in  the  liberty  of  the  Spirit  to  occupy  the  same 
plane  and  address  the  human  spirit  on  the  same 
level.  The  nearer  we  keep  to  this  ground,  the 
larger  our  participation  in  the  triumph  of  the  Son 
of  God.  The  more  we  decline  to  mediate  and 
lower  levels,  the  further  we  descend  in  our 
influence  upon  individual  souls  and  the  social  life 
of  man. 

This  is  a  truth  which  is  but  very  feebly  realised 
in  our  time.  The  opposite  conception  has  taken 
a  powerful  hold  of  very  many,  viz.: — that  the 
spiritual  cannot  stand  alone,  cannot  make  head¬ 
way  by  its  own  characteristic  light  and  influences, 
much  less  is  able  to  overpower  all  opposing  forces, 
by  resistless  appeal  to  the  whole  nature  of  man. 

89 


9o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


In  former  generations  men  laboured  at  an  elaborate 
apologetic  by  which  they  hoped  to  make  spiritual 
truth  acceptable  and  authoritative  to  reason,  not 
knowing  that  the  spiritual  as  such  carried  its  own 
immediate  sunlike  evidence,  and  commanded  an 
assent,  which  reason  could  not  create,  and  which 
rose  from  regions  of  moral  and  spiritual  intuition, 
when  deep  called  to  deep  in  immediate  response. 

To-day  in  another  form  we  have  the  same  mis¬ 
trust  of  the  spiritual.  Multitudes  follow  the 
Christian  faith  in  so  far  as  it  is  supported  by 
man’s  ethical  experience.  For  them  we  have  in 
Christ  the  supreme  expression  of  the  ethical 
ideal,  and  everything  beyond  is  naught.  But  an 
ethical  ideal  can  only  survive  as  enshrined  in  a 
spiritual  person,  who  must  in  the  whole  circuit  of 
His  personality  be  of  concern  for  us.  Merely  to 
take  certain  principles  of  right,  revealed  in  Him, 
and  follow  them  because  they  seem  to  suit  our 
nature  is  to  take  advantage  of  an  ethical  ideal  for 
our  own  selfish  ends,  not  to  bow  to  it.  And  so 
Christ  moves  on  to  bring  us  into  the  fellowship  of 
God,  and  to  discover  His  own  holy  will  to  us  as 
the  guide  of  our  entire  being.  He  would  have 
our  whole  life  regulated  from  a  divine  centre  in 
the  unseen,  and  would  have  all  its  activities  lie 
within  the  horizons  of  a  divine  purpose  and 
thought.  And  we  do  not  follow  Him  until  we 
come  unreservedly  out  to  His  standpoint,  accept 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  91 


His  testimony  regarding  the  unseen,  and  live  with 
God  in  Him. 

And  so  far  from  being  impracticable,  this  stand¬ 
point  of  Jesus  is  the  only  one  from  which  we  can 
reach  human  nature  as  a  whole.  While  to  the 
natural  man  the  spiritual  seems  to  lie  outside  of 
human  interest,  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  focuses  upon 
itself  all  the  chief  natural  interests  of  universal 
man.  Every  other  standpoint  is  one-sided.  The 
frankly  selfish  goes  a  long  way  in  this  fallen 
world,  but  in  the  long-run  rouses  against  it  all 
the  nobler  instincts  of  humanity,  and  is  surely  de¬ 
feated  at  last.  Every  ethical  standpoint  has  run 
into  a  narrow  particularism  at  some  point,  and  has 
provoked  antagonism  because  of  its  one-sided 
interpretation  of  right  and  good ;  some  being 
ascetical  in  their  cast,  some  merely  prudential, 
some  artistic  or  aesthetic.  And  so  it  is  that 
every  human  teacher  has  only  a  limited  following, 
and  inevitably  provokes  antagonisms  which  shut 
him  into  his  own  set. 

Because  Christ  stands  on  the  spiritual,  and 
speaks  to  man  as  spiritual,  He  alone  can  appeal 
to  men  of  every  description  of  gifts  and  disposi¬ 
tion  ;  and,  disregarding  all  barriers  of  thought  and 
race,  address  with  equal  force  and  directness  every 
son  of  man  in  the  whole  world.  There  is  just 
one  attitude  in  which  all  are  equal  and  one,  our 
relation  as  creatures  to  the  Creator.  From  this 


92 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


standpoint  we  discern  the  true  meaning  of  each 
function,  and  its  ministry  to  all  the  others.  In 
realising  this  master  end  each  secures  the  maxi¬ 
mum  of  satisfaction.  There  is  no  side  of  man 
that  is  not  involved  in  the  appeal  of  Christ.  There 
is  no  kind  of  good  which  is  not  included.  That 
God  has  discovered  Himself  to  the  creatures  whom 
He  has  made,  and  is  drawing  near  so  to  possess 
them  with  Himself  that  they  shall  realise  their 
ideal — that  immediately  and  profoundly  appeals  to 
every  son  of  man.  If  we  would  win  the  world 
for  Christ,  then  we  must  come  frankly  on  to  the 
line  of  the  spiritual,  and  deal  with  men  in  Christ’s 
own  power  and  from  Christ’s  ground. 

This  leads  us  to  one  further  preliminary  point. 
In  another  respect  the  method  of  Jesus  differs 
from  that  of  all  other  teachers.  The  latter  move 
from  without,  inwards.  He  moves  from  within, 
outwards.  They  try  to  establish  some  common 
understanding  with  those  whom  they  would 
attract — inform  the  mind,  persuade  the  judg¬ 
ment,  move  the  feelings  and  so  gain  the  assent 
of  the  will.  Jesus  does  not  reason ;  He  shines. 
He  throws  a  light  around  another  life,  the  immedi¬ 
ate  effluence  of  His  own  spirit,  and  that  life  stands 
interpreted  to  itself  in  this  spiritual  illumination. 
He  aims  first  to  win  the  man,  and  through  the 
response  of  the  human  spirit  to  His  own,  to  bring 
men  into  the  divine  fellowship,  and  then  from 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  93 


that  standpoint  of  the  divine  fellowship  lead  the 
soul  out  into  the  knowledge  of  all  things,  seen 
from  the  divine  standpoint  and  in  the  divine 
light.  All  philosophy  bears  witness  to  the  un¬ 
solved  and  insoluble  mysteries  attaching  to  our 
theories  of  knowing  and  being.  Jesus  does  not 
in  this  dispensation  scatter  all  mystery,  but  He 
lays  the  foundation  for  an  ultimate  perfect  solution 
by  turning  the  question  upside  down.  Being 
comes  before  knowing.  First  let  us  become  one 
with  God,  and  one  day  the  veil  shall  be  taken 
away.  We  shall  know  as  we  are  known;  being 
like  Him,  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is. 

All  this  brings  us  to  the  standpoint  of  Jesus  in 
dealing  with  men,  and  the  principle  of  His  search. 
He  accepted  no  creed  as  conclusive,  no  policy  as 
final  in  regard  to  their  possessors  being  in  the 
Kingdom.  He  did  not  accept  the  common  standards 
of  goodness  as  decisive  in  regard  to  this  higher 
fact.  He  went  seeking  for  men  in  whom  there 
was  an  openness  to  the  divine.  Wherever  they 
might  be  He  claimed  them  as  His  own.  He  came 
forth  to  seek  in  men  the  dormant  sense  of  God. 
He  made  nothing  of  men’s  findings — did  not  so 
much  as  go  aside  to  look  at  them.  The  precious 
thing  in  man  was  the  unstifled  sense  of  want,  the 
consciousness  of  the  unattained,  the  quenchless 
thirst  for  something  which  all  created  existence 
cannot  give — aspiration,  however  mistaken — in 


94  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


conscious  aim,  yet  which  at  bottom  was  aspiration 
for  God. 

The  value  of  this  point  of  view  for  getting  into 
contact  with  the  religious  needs  of  men  cannot  be 
exaggerated.  Religion  is  not  a  moral  police  or  a 
spiritual  school  of  character  to  fit  men  for  the 
tasks  and  exigencies  of  the  present,  but  something 
beyond  all  that,  in  a  fellowship  for  eternity  of  the 
soul  with  God.  Even  from  the  ethical  point  of 
view,  any  products  of  character  and  conduct  which 
are  short  of  that,  are  not  decisive  for  the  person  as 
a  whole.  Just  as  a  man  may  be  a  good  soldier,  an 
expert  business  man,  marked  by  a  high  sense  of 
business  honour,  and  yet  a  moral  failure  in  higher 
regards,  so  consistently  with  conformity  to  terrene 
standards,  a  man’s  deeper  nature  may  be  closed 
against  God.  And  in  that  case  his  very  morality 
is  inadequate  as  resting  on  provisional  and  second¬ 
ary  foundations,  and  more,  vitiated,  and  rendered 
nugatory,  by  the  basal  wrong  of  denying  his 
sovereign  obligation  to  God. 

If  we  would  bring  man  face  to  face  with  God 
and  establish  the  divine  Kingdom — though  religion 
be  the  fountain  of  the  deepest  and  truest  morality 
— we  must  depart  from  all  search  into  moral  attain¬ 
ments,  or  classification  into  moral  standards,  and 
search  for  those  who,  whatever  their  position,  have 
some  lingering  hunger  for  the  unattained.  We 
must  speak  to  the  thirst,  the  felt  want,  the  un- 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  95 


quenched  aspirations,  which  show  that  amid  all 
failure  and  defeat,  the  man  is  aiming  at  higher 
things.  Every  atom  and  fragment  of  good  in  the 
world  will  relate  themselves  to  the  new  and  master 
motives  to  obedience,  when  once  the  man  is  brought 
into  fellowship  with  God.  But  Christ’s  task  and 
ours  is  to  create  and  maintain  that  fellowship,  to 
bring  in  by  the  blessing  of  God  a  new  central  life 
which  shall  antiquate,  not  only  evil  but  the  poor 
and  relative  measures  of  good,  and  founding  the 
whole  life  on  God,  shall  make  all  things  new. 

And  that  this  whole  subject  may  live  before  us 
in  biblical  proportions  and  fulness,  I  shall  bring 
the  views  of  Paul  into  comparison  and  contrast 
with  those  of  Christ.  We  have  here,  I  believe, 
both  comparison  and  contrast — fundamental  unity 
in  consistency  with  minor  diversity,  and  for  our 
practical  and  immediate  end,  the  latter  of  equal 
importance  with  the  former.  Both  Jesus  and  Paul 
declare  that  there  is  a  direct  and  immediate  witness 
of  God  in  every  man.  “That  which  may  be 
known  of  God  is  manifest  in  them — for  God  hath 
shewed  it  unto  them”  (Rom.  i.  19).  I  can  re¬ 
member  no  saying  of  Christ’s  which,  with  equal 
directness  and  fulness,  enunciates  the  same  truth. 
He  came  immediately  to  children  of  the  Kingdom. 
But  many  things  conspire  to  show  that  in  His  view 
the  inner  witness  was  not  confined  to  them.  Many 
were  to  come  from  the  east  and  west  and  north  and 


9 6  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


south  and  sit  down  with  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob 
in  the  places  of  rejected  Israel.  By  the  magnetism 
of  His  cross  He  would  draw  all  men  unto  Him. 

While  there  was  thus  such  an  openness  of  the 
soul  to  God,  bearing  witness  to  the  fact  that  God 
had  made  men  for  Himself,  yet  Christ,  as  decidedly 
as  Paul,  points  out  man’s  alienation  and  rebellion. 
It  would  be  an  interesting  study  to  discover  from 
incidental  hints  and  bring  together,  all  the  lights 
in  which  Jesus  reveals  fallen  man’s  relation  to  God. 
Take  these  as  an  instalment.  Like  a  lost  sheep 
man  has  voluntarily  wandered  from  God  (Luke  xv. 
i,  8,  ii).  He  has  sunk  so  completely  out  of  the 
God  sphere  that  he  is  lost  to  the  idea  of  his  own 
being,  the  divine  image  having  become  incrusted 
and  buried.  And  this  has  resulted  from  an  act  of 
self-will  by  which  man  with  all  his  filial  appetencies 
has  taken  his  life  out  of  the  hand  of  Him  who  was 
not  only  his  creator,  but  was  going  on  to  discover 
Himself  as  Father.  Nor  could  he  establish  himself 
in  this  external  relation — he  was  perishing,  and 
under  the  blight  of  death — he  could  not  even  see 
wherein  true  life,  the  goal  of  the  human  soul,  con¬ 
sisted  ;  or  even  if  he  saw,  he  could  not  enter  in. 
The  Son  of  man  must  give  His  life  for  the  sheep. 
“Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the 
Kingdom  of  God  ”  (John  iii.  3).  There  is  nothing 
in  Paul  more  absolute  than  this. 

But  here  ensues  a  marked  diversity  of  method 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  9 7 


between  Jesus  and  Paul.  There  is  no  discrepancy 
of  doctrine.  There  is  no  real  difference  at  bottom, 
in  their  judgment  of  man.  Paul  had  his  task, 
essential,  of  primary  value,  but  limited  to  the 
specific  point  at  which  he  aimed.  In  one  sense 
the  Master  gave  him  the  superior  place.  Paul’s 
Epistles  come  into  the  very  core  of  every  redeemed 
experience,  and  so  in  the  evolution  of  Christian 
doctrine  they  are  of  essential  importance.  They 
are  a  science  of  life,  the  biology  of  the  new  nature. 
They  reduce  to  rational  and  connected  expression 
what,  taught  of  the  Spirit,  Paul  found  within  the 
redeemed  soul.  The  relation  of  Paul  to  Christ  is 
the  relation  of  science  to  nature.  The  former  may 
be  more  exact,  but  in  the  synthesis  of  the  latter 
there  is  a  liberty,  a  manifoldness,  a  contact  with 
concrete  fact  and  with  the  infinite  variety  of  human 
nature  and  actual  human  conditions,  not  only  of 
immense  value  but  necessary  to  the  full  sum  of 
divine  revelation. 

Dealing  with  the  immediate  point  how  a  man 
may  be  just  with  God,  Paul  emphasises  the  truth  of 
the  wrath  of  God  against  sin,  man’s  utter  in¬ 
capacity  to  satisfy  the  law,  his  need  of  a  salvation, 
founded  on  grace  and  proceeding  from  the  begin- 
ing  by  divine  power.  It  is  the  purest  mercy  to 
withdraw  men  from  all  creature  striving,  to  lean 
on  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Christ.  And 
whenever  men  are  really  brought  face  to  face 

G 


9  8  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

with  God  and  His  salvation,  there  is  no  other 
message  whether  from  Christ  or  Paul.  But  while 
that  is  truth  it  is  not  the  whole  truth,  and  there 
are  times  when  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
dwell  on  the  other  side.  There  are  multitudes  in 
whom  the  sense  of  sin  is  so  dormant,  whose 
consciousness  of  relation  to  God  is  so  vague  and 
intermittent,  who  live  so  entirely  within  the  circle 
of  personal  ambitions  and  desires,  that  they  need 
to  be  dealt  with  on  grounds  closer  to  their  actual 
feelings  and  experiences  if  they  are  to  be  moved 
at  all.  In  Paul’s  teaching,  there  are  many  im¬ 
plicates  of  thought  which  the  unstirred  man  does 
not  understand.  Paul’s  conclusions  are  the  end  of 
a  long  process  in  history,  and  they  are  often  the 
result  of  a  long  process  in  the  individual  man. 
Multitudes  who  have  been  brought  up  in  living 
Christian  atmospheres,  have  been  so  nurtured  in 
spiritual  conceptions,  that  when  the  Spirit  of  God 
moves  on  them,  they  enter  at  once  into  this 
teaching.  But  on  the  other  hand  there  are  vast 
numbers  living  under  the  sky  of  naturalism,  con¬ 
vinced  of  the  ethical  and  other  truths  which  may 
be  learned  there,  to  whom  this  teaching,  because 
of  the  missing  links,  seems  like  exaggeration  and  a 
denial  of  verities  which  appear  to  them  incontest¬ 
able. 

Accordingly,  if  in  our  evangel  we  simply  repeat 
the  formula  of  Paul,  irrespective  of  the  attitude 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  99 


or  the  difficulties  of  our  hearers,  we  shall  draw 
those  who  are  prepared  and  repel  others.  True, 
in  our  evangelical  teaching  we  must  always  come 
before  we  are  done  to  the  full  doctrine  of  sin  and 
grace  which  belongs  to  Christ  as  much  as  to  Paul. 
But  Jesus  brings  in  a  number  of  other  truths 
perfectly  consistent  with  that  conclusion,  yea, 
heightening  its  meaning  and  intensifying  its  appli¬ 
cation.  Jesus  is  establishing  no  system.  He  is 
living  as  the  Son  of  the  Father,  doing  the  will  of 
the  Father  before  and  in  relation  to  men.  He 
meets  men  in  the  changeful  moods  of  each  passing 
hour,  and  to  each  one,  under  the  feeling  of  the 
moment,  He  discovers  the  love  and  holiness  of 
God.  The  intercourse  is  as  objective  and  free  as 
that  of  men  with  each  other,  in  the  market  place 
or  the  home.  He  does  not  dogmatise,  or  get  them 
into  the  groove  of  His  thought,  before  He  leads 
them  out  to  blessing.  Rather  He  comes  down  to 
where  they  stand,  adjusts  Himself  to  their  dim  and 
wandering  thoughts,  and  out  of  the  coil  of  their 
confusion,  interpreting  them  to  themselves,  lifts 
them  up  to  God.  Here  we  have  no  doctrine  nor 
stereotyped  formula,  but  God  through  His  own 
Son  in  the  living  play  of  personality,  meeting  and 
drawing,  engaging  and  responding  to  every  variable 
mood  of  the  human  heart. 

Yet,  as  in  the  play  of  the  fountain,  the  droop 
of  the  lily  on  its  stalk,  the  eye  music  of  a  bird’s 


ioo  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


flight  as  well  as  in  the  procession  of  day  and  night, 
and  the  yearly  circuit  of  the  planets,  you  have 
expressions  of  the  great  central  law  of  gravitation  ; 
so  all  the  free  loving  interchanges  of  thought  are 
living  embodiments  of  spiritual  fact  and  law. 
While  to  Christ  as  to  Paul  man  is  utterly  estranged 
from  God,  not  able  of  himself  to  see  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  incapable  of  coming  save  through  the 
grace  of  Christ,  and  except  the  Father  draw  him, 
yet  the  life  thus  characterised  on  its  highest 
side  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a  blank  negation,  a 
uniform  dead  weight  of  resistance  to  all  that  is 
good  and  true.  Theologians,  looking  merely  at 
one  side  of  Bible  teaching  and  working  with  one 
set  of  conceptions,  have  sometimes  gone  so  far 
towards  that  error  in  their  representations,  as  to 
be  in  hostility  to  the  actual  facts  of  history,  and  so 
cause  a  revolt  of  the  general  conscience. 

With  infinite  subtlety,  Jesus  presents  man  in 
his  estrangement  from  God,  really  and  fully  as 
any  writer  of  Scripture,  and  yet  He  has  wonderful 
liberty  in  dealing  with  man  on  every  side  of  his 
nature — the  highest  as  well  as  the  lowest.  He 
sees  the  neutralising,  perverting  element  of  evil  in 
the  whole  vast  contexture  of  circumstance. 

Yet,  though  man  be  by  nature  in  a  condition 
of  impotence  and  blindness,  his  nature  was  so 
made  to  centre  in  right,  that  there  cannot  but  be 
u  fallings  from  him,  blank  misgivings  of  a  creature 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  101 


moving  about  in  worlds  not  realised.”  The  will  of 
sin  is  there,  but  there  is  one  hedging  him  in.  Con¬ 
science  speaks.  The  consequences  of  evil  carry  their 
silent  message.  Then  the  moral  unit  of  society 
is  the  family  with  its  powerful  instinctive  impulses. 
“Ye  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  *  good  gifts 
unto  your  children  ”  (Mat.  vii.  1 1).  And  as  society 
rises  out  of  the  family,  civic  and  public  virtues  are 
evolved.  Even  the  publicans  love  those  who  love 
them.  Round  about  men  too  are  the  healing  and 
stimulating  ordinances  of  nature  stirring  instinctive 
gratitude  and  admiration.  God  makes  the  sun 
to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good.  Thus  is  the 
common  grace  of  God  round  all  men,  stopping  for 
multitudes  the  fouler  approaches  to  evil,  diverting 
the  thoughts  of  men  to  outward  and  necessary 
things,  preoccupying  them  with  labours,  instinctive 
affections,  motives  for  generous  and  unselfish  acts, 
provoking  and  challenging  intellectual  activity  by 
the  signs  of  order  and  law,  by  the  ever-growing 
power  of  turning  natural  properties  and  substances 
to  ends  of  human  use.  And  with  all  this  healthful 
activity,  recognition  of  relative  obligations  increases. 
Christ’s  anger  with  the  scribes  and  lawyers  because 
of  their  prostitution  of  natural  rights,  binding 
heavy  burdens  on  men,  shows  that  in  His  view, 
with  all  their  religious  pretention,  they  were 
sinning  against  the  virtues  and  sincerities  of  common 
human  life.  His  parable  of  the  unjust  steward 


io2  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


too,  reveals  how  He  took  account  of  prudence, 
wisdom  in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  aptitude  for 
reaching  foreseen  ends,  won  even  in  courses  which 
from  the  moral  point  of  view  were  not  creditable. 
“  The  lord  commended  the  unjust  steward  because 
he  had  done  wisely.”  And  having  respect  to  all 
the  developed  social  activities  of  men  in  their 
manifold  relations,  He  says,  u  The  children  of  this 
world  are  wiser  in  their  generation  than  the  children 
of  light  ”  (Luke  xvi.  8,  9). 

The  broadening  light  of  human  wisdom  too  had 
not  been  without  its  influence  on  the  very  build 
of  man.  And  in  especial,  divine  teaching  coming 
to  Israel  from  generation  to  generation  had  widened 
the  horizons  and  trained  the  sensibilities  of  those 
who  were  still  but  “  the  lost  sheep  of  the  House 
of  Israel.”  Jesus  said  to  the  lawyer  about  an  ethical 
point,  uThou  hast  rightly  judged  ”  (Luke  vii.  43). 
In  many  He  recognised  an  enlarged  moral  dis¬ 
cernment  which  would  but  deepen  condemnation. 
Further,  in  His  mode  of  appeal,  He  counted  on  a  re¬ 
sponsiveness  to  spiritual  truth,  from  those  who  had 
been  educated  by  the  discipline  of  Israel  past  its 
more  primitive  stages.  When  the  scribe  said 
that  to  love  God  and  his  neighbour  is  more  than 
all  burnt-offerings  and  sacrifices,  Jesus  did  not 
treat  this  as  no  knowledge,  still  less  as  moral 
affectation.  He  who  had  so  often  to  charge  His 
countrymen  with  hypocrisies,  frankly  recognised 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  103 

in  this  the  moral  findings  of  a  sincere  soul  and 
said,  “  Thou  art  not  far  from  the  Kingdom  of 
God  ”  (Mark  xii.  34).  Yea,  more,  He  saw  in 
natural  men  disciplined  in  wisdom,  qualities  of 
ingenuousness  and  moral  enthusiasm  which  in 
themselves  were  beautiful.  Looking  on  the  young 
ruler  He  loved  him. 

Just  because  even  in  their  fall,  mankind  was  so 
great,  revealed  with  all  their  sin  so  unquenchable  a 
thirst  for  the  right  and  good,  and  such  relative 
worth  from  the  practice  of  what  virtues  they  knew, 
did  Jesus  long  to  draw  them  into  the  liberty  of 
sons  of  God.  He  put  Himself  in  their  place.  In 
the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Ghost  He  searched 
into  the  condition  of  each  one,  bringing  every 
faculty  into  the  light  of  the  moral  ideal  as  seen 
in  Himself,  and  then  leading  the  man  self-inter¬ 
preted  into  the  gracious  saving  presence  of  God. 
His  own  perfection  woke  the  latent,  imperfect, 
thwarted,  spiritual  consciousness  in  man.  And 
then  from  out  the  centre  of  His  fellowship  with 
the  Father,  Jesus  drew  by  His  personal  magnetism, 
revealed  in  words  or  works  of  power,  all  open 
souls  into  the  heavenly  presence.  He  was  not 
concerned  to  cast  them  down,  argumentatively 
to  expose  their  corruption,  their  nothingness  and 
impotence.  He  touched  them  in  all  the  appetencies 
of  their  souls  where  they  lay  openest  to  the  divine, 
and  then  so  shone  in,  that  when  they  were  thrilling 


io4  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


with  whatever  sense  of  God  they  had  ever  known, 
they  yet  saw  their  immeasurable  distance  not  only 
from  the  perfection  but  from  the  solid  foundations 
of  good,  and  cried  from  the  depths  of  their 
revealed  selves,  “Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a 
sinful  man,  O  Lord  !  ”  (Luke  v.  8). 

I  cannot  hope  to  have  at  all  adequately  stated 
this  particular  aspect  of  the  distinctive  method  of 
Jesus,  but  I  have  felt  it  fo  be  imperative  to  present 
it  even  so  imperfectly.  Because  it  throws  a  light 
on  a  work  in  which,  if  we  would  bring  Christ 
and  His  Gospel  to  this  generation,  we  must  seek 
earnestly  to  engage.  While  there  are  still  multi¬ 
tudes  so  nurtured  in  Christian  conceptions  that 
we  may  bring  them  at  once  to  Paul’s  doctrine  of 
sin  and  grace,  in  our  day  a  vast  proportion  of 
modern  men  and  women  have  so  withdrawn  within 
secular  horizons  and  are  living  for  ends  so  con¬ 
fined  to  the  present  scene,  whether  material  or 
intellectual  or  moral,  that  they  need  to  have  the 
true  meaning  and  proportions  of  their  natures 
interpreted  to  them,  that  they  need  to  be  drawn 
by  the  aspirations  and  unanswered  enigmas  of 
their  being,  back  within  the  horizon  of  God. 
That  is  our  calling,  and  it  is  the  most  exalted 
calling  in  the  world.  It  can  only  be  done  by 
those  who  are  wholly  for  God,  who  live  for  Him 
as  other  men  live  for  gold  or  position  or  fame 
or  knowledge.  And  even  in  the  case  of  such, 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  105 


success  can  only  be  secured  by  the  illumination 
and  anointing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  freshly  received 
in  our  endeavour  to  grapple  with  each  successive 
soul. 

Nor  is  it  enough,  if  that  were  possible,  simply 
to  copy  Jesus  in  His  actual  methods.  His  objective 
was  the  actual  men  with  whom  He  had  to  deal, 
within  the  coil  of  their  thoughts  and  under  the 
actual  pressure  of  need  which  they  experienced. 
Scotchmen  and  Englishmen  in  this  twentieth 
century  are  not  circumstanced  or  affected  as  Jews 
in  the  first.  They  have  their  own  difficulties, 
approach  questions  from  their  own  standpoints, 
and  have  their  own  governing  conceptions.  The 
work  of  interpretation  has  to  be  done  over  again, 
within  the  horizons  of  the  present,  and  dealing 
with  facts  as  we  find  them.  We  must  approach 
them  in  the  spirit  of  Him  u  who  took  their  infirm¬ 
ities  and  bare  their  sicknesses  ”  (Mat.  viii.  17).  So 
far  as  men  can  do,  we  must  give  our  lives  for  the 
sheep,  putting  ourselves  in  their  place,  thinking  for 
them,  giving  ourselves  to  them.  And  not  only  must 
we  live  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit  so  as  personally 
to  be  at  His  disposal,  but  we  must  count  upon 
His  pentecostal  fulness  given  to  build  up  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

Professionalism,  exaggerating  the  worth  of  official 
place  and  authority,  sooner  or  later  divests  our 
ministry  of  its  true  inherent  power.  Sacerdotalism, 


io 6  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


claiming  for  priests  the  place  of  mediators,  carrying 
down  to  men  in  the  closed  channel  of  their  orders 
heavenly  grace,  inevitably  outrages  the  religious 
sense  by  its  utter  foreignness  to  the  message  and 
spirit  of  Christ.  But  if  we  approve  ourselves 
servants  of  the  One  Mediator,  in  the  hand  of 
God,  to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  grace,  by 
calling  men  to  the  obedience  of  faith,  they  will 
yield  a  deference  and  concede  to  us  an  authority, 
compared  with  which  mere  professional  status  is  a 
shadow.  The  world  is  sick  of  shadows  of  the 
true,  but  when  men  are  found  witnessing  in  utter 
self-abnegation,  and  clothed  with  the  visible  witness 
of  Him  who  answers  by  fire,  then  in  a  measure  such 
as  history  has  never  recorded  shall  humanity 
respond  to  the  Gospel  call. 

And  now,  let  me  close  this  lecture  by  giving 
a  series  of  actual  examples  as  to  the  way  in  which 
Christ  dealt  with  men.  Amid  all  diversities  caused 
by  race,  training,  and  circumstances,  there  are 
great  abiding  experiences  and  attitudes  of  the 
human  soul  common  to  men  of  every  age.  I  see 
in  the  Beatitudes  (Mat.  v.  3-11)  a  series  of  deep-sea 
soundings  by  which  Christ  sought  to  plumb  the 
depths  of  human  hearts.  To  the  giddy  multitudes 
of  Jerusalem  He  could  not  trust  Himself.  The 
minds  of  the  Pharisees  were  sealed  by  their  own 
formulas,  steeled  against  all  persuasion  by  their 
self-sufficiency.  He  came  out  among  those  less 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  107 


hide-bound,  and  those  exposed  to  the  hardness 
and  frequent  vicissitudes  of  human  experience. 
Seeing  the  vast  multitudes,  stirred  with  a  sense 
of  want  but  ignorant  of  satisfaction,  He  gathered 
them  around  Him,  the  disciples  being  in  the  inner 
circle.  They  were  all  in  the  category  of  learners, 
some  having  gone  so  far  as  to  confess  Him,  others 
only  questioning  and  learning. 

When  men  are  brought  under  the  power  of 
spiritual  realities,  there  is  wisdom  in  special 
gatherings  for  men  and  for  women,  for  inquirers 
and  for  converts,  for  young  and  for  old.  But 
when  we  are  arousing  men  to  the  sense  and  reality 
of  spiritual  things,  the  wise  course  is  to  take  all 
who  are  willing  to  be  taught  together.  What  is 
spoken  to  the  most  advanced,  is  sometimes  the 
very  thing  which  affects  the  beginner,  while  in 
the  effort  to  stoop  to  infantile  perceptions,  we 
take  captive  those  of  mature  experience.  The 
human  personality  is  far  subtler  than  any  one  of 
us  can  find  out.  A  man  of  between  sixty  and 
seventy  once  came  to  me  utterly  broken  down 
under  conviction  of  sin.  While  he  kept  opening 
the  plagues  of  his  heart,  my  mind  went  searching 
back  into  the  sermon  to  discover  the  shaft  which 
probably  pierced  him.  To  my  wonder  and  almost 
chagrin — such  proud  creatures  we  are — I  found 
that  what  the  Son  of  God  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
was  pleased  to  use  was  a  little  story — almost  too 


io8  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


familiar  for  pulpit  use — which  I  had  told  the 
children.  Remember  one  man  is  a  microcosm. 
God  hath  set  eternity  in  his  heart.  Living  in 
time  he  has  hold  of  two  eternities.  He  cannot 
explain  himself  by  anything  that  he  sees.  Many 
a  time  he  yields  to  a  simple  expression  of  ex¬ 
perience  what  he  withholds  from  discussion  and 
argument.  And  he  who  is  taught  of  God  can  so 
throw  the  line  that  each  finds  his  own  attachment. 

I  once  rode  past  the  Horns  of  Hattin  where 
these  words  most  probably  were  spoken.  I 
seemed  to  see  the  multitudes — the  flotsam  and 
jetsam  of  the  whole  region  gathered  round  the 
inner  circle  of  the  disciples,  and  that  round  the 
Lord.  His  first  words  spoken  to  the  disciples 
went  out  with  added  emphasis  to  the  last  man 
on  the  outmost  circle  of  the  throng.  Behold 
Him  sending  down  the  plummet  into  that  throng. 
Might  I  put  into  a  sentence  or  two  the  purport 
of  these  golden  words  ?  The  great  thing  in  this 
life  is  not  having  but  wanting,  turning  from  all 
earthly  havings  to  thirst  for  the  unattained.  Life’s 
possibilities  lie  infinitely  beyond  life’s  realizations. 
Having  is  a  limited  thing,  which,  in  possessing, 
we  transcend  ;  a  deep  pervasive  sense  of  lack 
touches  the  infinite ;  every  true  thirst  of  the 
being  resolving  itself  into  a  thirst  for  God. 

If  we  could  bring  a  message  like  that  level 
to  every  one  in  an  audience,  should  we  lack 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  109 


auditors  ?  But  let  us  take  the  particular  beati¬ 
tudes.  For  what  a  number  in  every  generation 
the  first  comes.  u  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  Spirit 
for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom  of  God.”  In  a  sense 
it  is  an  introduction  to  all  which  follow.  We 
all  start  life  with  the  buoyancy  and  confidence 
of  youth,  but  the  vast  majority  get  worsted  at 
some  point.  We  have  to  acknowledge  disillusion 
and  defeat,  the  successful  of  us  no  less  than  the 
glaring  failures.  Everything  depends  on  how  we 
take  our  rebuffs.  Many  close  their  eyes  to  facts, 
and  blaming  circumstances,  become  intoxicated 
with  a  whimpering  egoism.  But  to  every  soul 
loyal  to  fact,  the  shattering  of  idols,  the  falling 
of  the  night  of  adversity  lays  bare  the  deeper 
needs  of  the  man.  And  here  comes  his  trial, 
will  he  confess  his  folly  ?  In  conscious  poverty 
of  soul  is  he  now  willing  to  learn  ?  That  man 
is  blessed — no  matter  what  his  present  miseries. 
Not  one  of  all  the  legions  of  those  who  rest 
in  what  they  have,  is  for  a  moment  to  be  compared 
to  him.  He  is  near  to  see  that  the  true  powers 
of  the  universe  are  for  him.  All  essential  good 
is  open  to  him,  even  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
Christ  stakes  His  reputation  for  veracity  on  that 
fact,  He  challenges  his  hearer’s  faith.  You  may 
state  all  that  as  a  formal  doctrine,  and  it  will 
fall  on  preoccupied  minds  and  listless  ears.  Bring 
it  level  as  a  fact  to  actual  pressing  conditions, 


no  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


and  men  will  forget  everything  to  realise  the 
boon. 

But  there  are  those  to  whom  life  is  one  long 
regret.  u  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,  for  they 
shall  be  comforted.”  Not  only  are  they  humbled 
by  adverse  circumstances,  they  are  convinced  that 
their  chance  has  gone  for  ever.  By  their  own 
folly  they  have  closed  the  door  upon  themselves. 
Never  can  they  retrieve  the  past.  They  have 
made  their  bed  and  they  must  lie  on  it.  They 
have  sown  to  the  flesh,  and  of  the  flesh  must  reap 
corruption.  What  comfort  could  you  give  such 
a  man  ?  He  may  not  be  thinking  at  all  of  what 
you  call  his  soul.  He  may  simply  be  weeping 
over  buried  hopes,  a  frustrated  career,  ruined 
manhood.  He  may  be  in  a  very  wilderness  as 
regards  all  the  higher  aspects  of  life.  The 
plunging  sword  of  his  anguish  may  be  the  very 
fact  that  he  has  staked  everything  on  the  present, 
and  it  is  lost.  And  the  hoped  blessings  may  be 
lost  for  ever. 

Christ  does  not  go  outside  the  man  to  preach 
or  inculcate.  He  preaches  to  the  man  from  the 
deeps  of  himself.  Do  you  know  that  you  are 
a  blessed  man — more  blessed  than  in  your  most 
prosperous  days?  Suppose  you  had  got  all  at 
which  you  aimed,  you  would  have  been  a  pros¬ 
perous  worldling  shut  into  your  sufficient  self. 
You  would  not  then  mourn.  No !  you  would 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  1 1 1 


have  been  far  below  that  level.  That  mourning 
of  yours  has  educative  elements  of  priceless  value. 
You  are  waking  up  to  see  that  these  things  never 
could  have  satisfied.  If  those  higher  feelings  had 
not  been  present,  after  the  first  sharp  pangs  you 
would  have  set  your  teeth,  and  bowed  to  fate. 
The  man  made  for  God,  created  to  find  a  perfect 
satisfaction,  is  crying  in  you.  Your  despair  is 
the  obverse  of  an  incorruptible  hope.  Do  you 
know  you  are  more  blessed  in  having  that,  than 
in  all  the  possessions  of  the  world  ?  You  are 
on  the  way  to  victory.  The  voices  of  fashion 
and  the  world’s  wisdom,  and  of  the  tempter  have 
died  in  you.  You  are  listening  to  the  incorruptible, 
God-made  yearnings  of  the  human  heart.  Think 
you  that  He  who  made  you  so,  cannot  satisfy  the 
desires  He  has  made?  You  have  erred  by  pitch¬ 
ing  your  desires  too  low,  far  too  low.  Pitch  them 
higher.  Rise  to  the  full  heights  of  aspiration. 
Trust  in  Me.  You  shall  be  comforted. 

We  are  on  somewhat  changed  ground  in  the 
next  beatitude,  u  Blessed  are  the  meek  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  earth.”  Even  in  the  outfield  of 
worldliness  and  paganism,  the  great  bulk  of  men 
have  been  law-abiding,  prosperous  citizens,  who  con¬ 
tinue  the  despair  of  the  church,  because  they  have 
so  much  reason  to  be  content  with  things  as  they 
are.  Life,  however,  has  been  testing  even  them. 
The  whole  aim  of  providence  is  to  sift  out  from 


1 12  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


those  who  rest  in  the  material,  all  who  have  an 
opening,  not  to  say  a  hunger,  for  higher  things. 
We  are  not  fit  to  deal  with  men  unless  we  discern 
this  providential  law  of  God.  The  people  who 
will  not  come  into  mission  halls,  who  do  not  fit 
in  readily  to  ecclesiastical  machinery,  strong-minded 
working  men,  the  active  and  prosperous  business 
and  professional  classes,  thoughtful,  self-reliant 
brain  workers ;  they  all  are  being  tested  in  the 
school  of  life.  And  while  many  cling  to  their 
blatant  sufficiency,  some  are  recognising  the  over¬ 
soul — the  great  Will  that  orders  all.  They  are 
becoming  meek,  humble  themselves  to  watch  His 
footsteps.  They  have  risen  above  the  insane 
dream  that  the  world  is  their  oyster  to  open  and 
eat.  They  want  to  follow,  to  submit  themselves 
to  laws,  to  read  the  thoughts  which  God  has 
written  in  His  universe.  In  a  word  they  make 
an  opening  for  the  wisdom  that  is  in  the  world 
to  come  in,  inform  and  work  through  them. 

That  may  not  have  gone  far  as  we  judge — 
not  even  to  the  recognition  of  a  personal  God, 
much  less  to  prayer.  But  even  so  far  as  he  has 
gone,  that  man  is  on  a  higher  plane  than  all  the 
self-seekers  of  the  world,  and  he  is  on  the  road 
to  more.  There  will  come  into  his  lowly  receptive 
spirit,  the  light  which  guides  to  victory  in  every 
realm  of  knowledge  and  practical  endeavour.  He 
has  only  to  follow  on  into  higher  regions  of  God’s 


HOW  HE  DREW  MEN  TO  HIMSELF  nj 

unveiling  to  get  the  true  inheritance  in  God  which 
will  make  all  lower  inheritances  really  blessed. 
‘‘Blessed  are  the  meek  for  they  shall  inherit  the 
earth.” 

And  now,  having  unfolded  the  general  method 
and  spirit  of  these  beatitudes,  let  us  group,  in  vivid 
relation  to  each  other,  those  that  remain.  Because 
man,  fallen  though  he  be,  has  been  made  for  God, 
every  deep  thirst  of  his  being  is  at  bottom  if  he 
only  knew  it,  a  thirst  for  God.  And  so  there  rise 
up  in  human  souls  far  off  from  certitude  and  peace, 
thirsts  for  some  form  of  good,  gleaming  out  upon 
them  from  the  highest  that  they  see  among  men. 
In  some  there  is  a  stirring  of  a  sense  of  right,  and 
they  hunger  and  thirst  after  its  fulfilment.  In 
some  the  sense  of  benevolence  diffused  through 
the  world  creates  an  impulse  of  mercifulness, 
while  others  amid  the  very  mire  of  time  are 
struck  by  the  beauty  of  pure  aspiration  and  holy 
character.  That  is  life’s  true  good  in  their  view. 

Out  among  men,  far  as  yet  from  full  reconcili¬ 
ation  with  God,  such  emotions  are  working,  such 
lines  of  character  are  forming.  There  is  nothing 
in  this  to  be  called  attainment  but  only  aspiration 
and  search,  and  because  of  profound  incon¬ 
sistencies  they  might  never  come  to  ripening,  (we 
believe  never  would)  if  left  to  themselves.  But 
yet  they  are  real  as  far  as  they  go.  And  unless 
you  can  with  the  Master  get  to  their  side  and 

H 


114  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


move  on  from  their  standpoint  you  will  never  lead 
them  on  to  the  full  fellowship  of  God. 

Notice  Jesus  says  Blessed!  ay,  by  how  much 
they  have  been  feeling  toward  the  truth  they  are 
blessed.  They  have  left  the  earth-bound  herds 
behind,  they  are  at  last  seeking  for  the  path 
toward  eternal  good.  They  may  have  far  to  go 
and  much  yet  to  learn.  But  such  thirsts  as  these 
are  prophecies  of  satisfaction.  The  man  who 
longs  for  right  in  a  world  of  wrong,  shall  yet, 
following  Christ,  rise  into  perfect  righteousness  in 
Him.  He  who  touched  by  the  Divine  benevolence 
shows  mercy,  when  the  fountains  of  the  great 
deep  break  up  under  a  sense  of  sin,  shall  find 
mercy.  And  the  secret  longing  after  purity  shall 
be  rewarded  with  the  vision  of  God. 

We  might  follow  this  line  of  treatment  right 
out  to  the  close  of  this  great  passage,  but  for  the 
practical  end  we  have  in  view  these  brief  sketches 
may  suffice.  Is  there  a  lock  or  ward  of  the 
human  soul  which  Christ  cannot  fit  into  and  move 
with  resistless  power?  May  we  learn  of  Him,  in 
this  large  sympathetic  and  discerning  way  to  enter 
into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men,  that  we  may 
win  them  for  God. 


THE  LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY 


V 


THE  LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY 

We  pause  in  the  regular  development  of  our 
theme,  to  note  one  very  pervasive  characteristic 
of  the  ministry  of  Christ,  It  is  the  province  of 
this  lectureship  to  deal  mainly  with  the  evangelistic 
aspect  of  the  ministry, — or  otherwise  to  prepare 
for  that  aggressive  activity  which  is  specially 
directed  to  the  undecided  within  and  surrounding 
the  church,  in  the  various  communities  in  which 
ministers  may  be  placed.  On  the  one  side,  they 
have  to  maintain  and  carry  on  the  organized  life 
and  work  of  their  church.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  and  their  congregations  subsist  to  fulfil  the 
Saviour’s  command — u  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature  ”  (Mark  xvi.  15),  “beginning  at  Jerusalem” 
(Luke  xxiv.  47).  What  relation  are  these  two 
aspects  of  their  work  to  have  one  to  the  other? 

This  question  is  of  distinct  importance  at  the 
present  juncture,  because  we  are  passing  from 
one  era  in  the  practical  work  of  the  church  to 
another.  As  regards  aggressive  work,  we  have 
for  nearly  a  century  been  living  in  a  Judges’ 

“7 


1 18  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


period,  in  which  after  seasons  of  lull  and  reaction, 
God  has  raised  up  notable  personalities — laymen, 
many  of  them — and  others,  ministers,  wholly  given 
up  to  this  form  of  activity.  Such  names  as  these 
rise  at  once  to  the  memory — Professor  Finney, 
Rev.  William  Burns,  Brownlow  North,  Reginald 
Radcliffe,  William  Booth,  and  D.  L.  Moody. 
These  men  and  a  host  besides  hardly  less  worth 
naming,  by  independent  missions,  mostly  associated 
with  the  Churches,  have  widely  extended  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  have  set  in  motion  manifold 
Christian  activities,  and  by  their  influence  on  and 
through  the  Churches  have  accomplished  more 
than  by  their  immediate  efforts. 

Nothing  can  be  more  indisputable  however, 
than  that  this  direct  ministry  of  evangelism  is  the 
chief  Christian  responsibility  of  the  organized 
church  itself.  Paul  was  no  unattached  evangelist, 
but  one  of  the  Divinely  appointed  founders  of 
the  Church,  yet  he  said  uNow  then  we  are 
ambassadors  for  Christ,  though  God  did  beseech 
you  by  us  we  pray  in  Christ’s  stead  be  ye 
reconciled  unto  God”  (2  Cor.  v.  20).  Christ 
connects  the  Pentecostal  Baptism  with  the  cease¬ 
less  centrifugal  witness  of  the  church,  from 
Jerusalem  out  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  When 
a  Church  turns  back  upon  herself  becoming  her 
own  care,  that  Church  begins  to  die.  Not  all 
the  talent,  learning  and  organization  in  the  world 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  119 


can  keep  any  Church  alive  and  victorious  over  her 
foes ;  but  only  the  fulness  of  the  Spirit,  acting  out 
through  consecrated  wills  in  a  ministry  of  con¬ 
version,  and  thus  reacting  on  the  edification  of 
the  Church’s  own  life.  When  virtue  goes  out  of 
us,  when  because  of  the  felt  power  of  God  in  and 
with  us,  we  speak  with  authority  and  not  as  the 
scribes,  horizons  of  spiritual  possibility  open  up, 
which  throw  us  in  upon  God  in  an  agony  of  need 
and  expectation,  and  create  an  impression  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  spiritual  which  pervades  the 
great  mass  of  the  people. 

Unless  a  Church  consciously  and  with  her  whole 
heart  is  seeking  these  ends,  she  is  undeniably 
guilty  of  sin.  She  is  not  living  for  the  purposes 
for  which  Christ  founded  the  Church — the  glory 
of  the  Father,  the  triumph  of  His  Kingdom,  the 
victory  of  the  Spirit,  and  so  there  is  a  proportionate 
withdrawal  of  Father,  Son  and  Spirit  from  her 
operations.  Babylon  was  the  rod  of  God’s  anger 
against  unfaithful  Judah.  And  what  we  call  the 
hostile  forces  of  to-day,  are  not  merely  natural 
tendencies,  but  God’s  chastening  rod,  humbling  us 
before  an  exulting  materialism. 

How  then  in  consistency  with  our  positions  as 
ministers  of  the  Church,  charged  with  the  task  of 
feeding  the  flock  of  God,  and  maintaining  her 
organized  life,  can  we  throw  ourselves  into  this 
aggressive  labour  making  the  Church  more  than 


i2o  THE  MAGNETISM  OE  CHRIST 


she  has  ever  been,  a  true  propaganda.  These 
two  aims  are  not  antagonistic.  The  pastor’s 
jealousy  of  the  evangelist,  the  evangelist’s  far  too 
frequent  disparagement  of  the  pastor,  have  no 
justification  in  fact.  The  true  and  full  function 
of  the  Church  in  this  modern  world  shall  not  be 
seen,  till  from  end  to  end  these  two  are  working 
in  closest  association  and  full  mutual  appreciation. 
Let  us  show  how  Christ  touched  in  His  ministry 
both  sides  of  our  peculiar  responsibility,  keeping 
in  close  contact  with  the  living  Church  of  His  day, 
yet  striking  out  on  new  and  original  lines  of 
aggressive  activity. 

i.  Though  Christ  occupied  a  wholly  unique 
position,  having  come  to  antiquate  the  past  by 
founding  the  Kingdom  of  heaven,  yet  in  a  hundred 
ways  He  emphasized  His  vital  and  essential  contact 
with  the  past.  He  stood  in  a  great  historical 
development  of  Divine  purpose.  His  work  was 
the  fulfilment  of  all  that  went  before.  He  never 
forgot  too,  what  we  so  often  forget,  that  there  is 
a  glorious  objectivity  as  well  as  a  piercing  subject¬ 
ivity  in  His  religion.  He  deals  with  man  in  his 
inner  life  as  no  other  one  does.  Yet  He  so  roots 
him  in  God  as  to  lead  him  out  into  an  objective 
brotherhood,  destined  to  be  influential  upon  the 
world’s  life,  and  pervasively  present  in  human 
society.  We  must  emphasize  the  outwardness  of 
the  religious  fellowship  as  well  as  the  inwardness 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  121 


of  the  spiritual  life.  Jesus  then  saw  in  Israel  a 
provisional  and  temporary  effort  to  set  up  in  one 
nation,  a  Kingdom  of  God,  based  upon  a  real  if 
symbolical  relation  to  and  fellowship  with  Himself. 
God  was  in  that  old  history  and  in  every  step  He 
was  pointing  to  the  end.  Abraham  saw  His  day. 
In  Moses  and  all  the  prophets  He  found  things 
concerning  Himself.  The  temple  was  His  Father’s 
house.  He  associated  the  Last  Supper  with  the 
Passover  feast.  And  when  the  Old  Testament 
feast  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come,  He  sent  the 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  which  created  the 
Christian  Church. 

He  honoured  the  temple  services  by  his  attend¬ 
ance.  He  frequented  the  synagogues.  He  sent 
the  healed  leper  to  show  himself  unto  the  priest. 
He  paid  the  temple  shekel.  He  betrayed  His 
unspeakable  reverence  for  the  house  of  God  by 
driving  the  buyer  and  seller  out  in  a  very 
tempest  of  holy  rage.  With  all  His  reasons  for 
moral  indignation  at  the  insincerity  and  heartless 
deceit  of  the  leading  representatives  of  religion, 
and  at  their  base  hostility  to  Him,  He  led  no 
crusade  against  the  established  religion  nor  even 
suggested  separation.  He  met  His  death  coming 
up  to  the  great  feast.  He  rode  publicly  into 
Jerusalem  as  their  King  at  last  come  to  Zion,  in 
the  feast  of  Passover  and  begun  fellowship  with 
God. 


i22  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Now  all  this  is  of  value  for  us.  We  cannot 
without  loss  retire  into  our  individual  selves,  and 
disregard  the  struggles  and  deflections  of  the  past, 
the  accumulated  results  of  Christ’s  presence  in  and 
with  His  people,  stored  up  in  the  life  and  thought 
of  the  Church.  Christianity  is  not  a  mere  opinion, 
but  a  revelation  of  ultimate  fact,  which  comes  into 
very  positive  and  transfiguring  relations  with  all 
types  of  human  life,  and  expresses  itself  in  innumer¬ 
able  activities  and  institutions.  Mingling  with  all 
the  interests  and  aspirations  of  the  peoples  whom 
it  possesses,  Christianity  takes  special  embodi¬ 
ments  in  types  of  doctrine,  organization,  poetry, 
art,  literature.  Churches  arise  expressing  in  their 
manifold  organisations  different  sides  of  the  one 
universal  truth.  Specific  directions  are  given  to 
social  and  individual  life.  Ideals  blossom  in  great 
variety  within  consecrated  lives,  which  become  the 
models  and  inspirations  of  generations.  Light  is 
invisible,  until  striking  an  atmosphere  and  being 
reflected  from  a  thousand  coigns  of  vantage,  it 
reveals  something  of  its  glorious  possibilities  in 
illuminating  a  splendid  landscape,  where  towns  and 
hamlets  lie  bowered  in  trees,  and  the  encompassing 
hills  are  mirrored  in  fiord  or  lake. 

Nor  is  it  otherwise  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Christianity  stands  forth  in  real  objective  fact,  and 
in  the  characteristic  quality  of  its  influence,  in  the 
society  which  it  has  called  into  being,  and  in 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  123 


the  sum  of  its  influences  on  the  race.  The  repre¬ 
sentation  is  indeed,  as  yet,  very  imperfect.  With 
all  the  answering  aspects  which  shine  from  every 
quarter  of  the  Christian  world,  blending  their  con¬ 
trasted  lights  into  one  whole,  there  is  given  but  a 
very  feeble  and  distorted  and  even  in  parts  a  false 
view  of  the  Christian  ideal.  Indeed,  Christ,  living 
in  His  Church  by  the  Spirit,  ceaselessly  makes 
these  defects,  errors,  and  scandals  to  appear.  And 
so  almost  without  intermission,  impatient  souls  are 
found  trying  some  short  cut  to  the  ideal,  by  leaving 
the  Church,  breaking  with  the  continuity  of  history 
and  starting  a  new  system  from  the  ground  of  their 
redeemed  experience  and  in  the  light  of  the  Spirit. 
If  they  are  wise,  however,  they  soon  come  to  discern 
that  Christ  is  in  His  Church,  despite  all  her  defects ; 
that  in  her  continuous  testimony  and  world-wide 
influence  they  have  evidences  of  the  reality  of  the 
spiritual  which  they  cannot  discard  ;  that  in  her 
creeds  they  have  developed  into  indefeasible  com¬ 
pleteness  of  expression  the  great  principles  of  their 
belief ;  that  in  her  saints  they  have  types  of 
spiritual  greatness,  and  in  her  literature  ripe  expres¬ 
sion  of  her  spiritual  experience  simply  priceless  for 
the  education  of  the  religious  life.  Yea,  they  see 
that  they  themselves  have  taken  on  the  mould  and 
impress  of  the  system  and  Church  under  which  they 
have  grown  up,  that  they  themselves  are  only  single 
pulses  in  a  vast  sum  of  sanctified  energies,  and  that 


124  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


they  can  get  most  and  do  most  by  fitting  in  to  the 
whole  system  of  forces,  receiving  the  impulse  of 
the  whole  and  making  an  individual  contribution 
as  God  may  enable  them.  The  great  Pentecostal 
baptism  was  to  the  Church,  and  in  the  Church, 
Christ’s  body,  individual  members  are  upheld  by 
the  energy  of  the  whole  for  their  individual 
parts. 

We  forget  that  the  perfection  of  the  Kingdom 
is  a  social  perfection,  and  that  individual  character 
and  even  spiritual  thought  only  reach  completeness 
as  the  saints  rise  toward  their  ideal  brotherhood. 
We  must  take  the  whole  abreast,  and  from  our 
Church  standpoints  press  up  along  every  line  of 
our  action  towards  the  ideal,  constantly  eliminating 
imperfection,  withdrawing  the  mass  of  believers 
from  excess  and  defect,  sharpening  the  sense  of 
duty,  accentuating  the  claim  of  Christ,  heightening 
men’s  ideas  of  the  possibilities  of  faith,  and  widening 
their  views  of  Christian  responsibilities.  Yet  must 
we  discard  nothing  vital  and  true,  however  racy  of 
the  soil,  until  we  find  the  larger  good  in  which 
they  merge,  the  wider  harmonies  in  which  we  may 
keep  their  essence,  and  set  aside  only  their  limits 
and  eccentricities.  Churchmanship  is  not  a  thing 
to  be  tolerated  as  an  existing  fact,  but  to  be  more 
seriously  grasped  and  more  deeply  understood,  as 
central  to  the  conception  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
to  be  livingly  realized  as  the  outward  and  historical 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  125 


means  by  which  Christ  would  have  His  Kingdom 
visible,  pervasive,  permanent,  in  modern  life.  We 
are  under  no  necessity  of  copying  the  exclusiveness 
of  the  past,  but  we  need  more  of  that  faith  and 
attachment  to  the  Church,  as  a  Divine  institution, 
which  led  our  fathers  to  safeguard  its  liberties 
with  their  blood. 

II.  Thus  did  Christ  stand  in  relation  to  the 
living  past  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  now 
in  coming  forth  from  within  the  circle  of  unclouded 
fellowship  with  God,  and  in  the  power  of  the 
spirit,  to  proclaim  His  Divine  message,  what 
lines  is  He  pleased  to  lay  down  for  Himself,  in 
pursuance  of  His  new  and  original  mission  ? 

There  is  one  great  lesson  written  broad  on  the 
face  of  the  Gospels  which  in  my  judgment  has 
never  been  adequately  apprehended  nor  practically 
realized,  containing  within  itself  Christ’s  own  large 
conception  of  what  the  aggressive  message  and 
mission  of  the  Church  should  be.  Indeed  we  have 
but  to  survey  the  literature  of  the  present  day  to 
discover  the  divergence  of  men’s  views  regarding 
points  so  fundamental  as  the  scope  and  end  of 
our  Lord’s  ministry.  To  some  He  is  a  social 
teacher,  to  others  the  exponent  of  an  ethical  ideal, 
and  only  to  a  section  of  His  followers  is  He  still 
the  divine  Son,  revealer  of  God  and  founder 
of  Redemption.  Following  out  the  thought  to 
which  we  are  about  to  give  expression,  we 


126  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


shall  be  able  to  give  the  synthesis  of  His  whole 
activity. 

Christ’s  line  of  action  is  but  another  illustration 
of  a  great  law  of  method  exemplified  by  Him  in 
another  connection.  “Gather  up  the  fragments 
which  remain  that  nothing  be  lost.”  (John  vi.  12.) 
Undoubtedly  we  have  seen  in  Lecture  III.  what  is 
central  in  the  mission  of  Christ.  He  came  from 
God  to  bring  men  back,  by  a  propitiation,  into 
the  love  and  favour  of  God.  And  charged  with 
this  high  commission,  He  first  turned  His  thoughts 
to  those  who  had  a  measure  of  light,  through 
association  with  the  old  covenant.  He  would 
utilize  every  fragment  of  their  past  findings  as  a 
pedestal  from  which  He  would  unveil  the  superior 
glory  of  His  Gospel.  In  particular,  He  would 
serve  Himself  of  the  reactions  into  which  the  sons 
of  Israel  had  fallen,  to  discover  in  many  directions 
the  bearings  and  applications  of  the  message  which 
He  proclaimed — so  that  all  with  open  eyes  might 
behold  that  message  as  a  great  many-sided  fact, 
touching  human  life  at  every  point,  and  bearing  in 
upon  every  need  of  man. 

Now  here  we  may  note  a  fact  which,  apparently 
accidental,  is  found  to  have  a  universal  significance. 
There  were  three  main  reactions  in  that  day  from 
the  highest  that  was  known  of  God  up  to  the 
coming  of  Christ,  a  barren  intellectualism,  a  moral 
self-sufficiency,  a  confinement  within  the  horizon 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  127 


of  the  present.  And  the  logic-chopping  Sadducee, 
the  proud  Pharisee,  the  Rich  Fool  are  universal 
types  of  religious  degeneracy  on  the  part  of  those 
who  still  cling  to  the  name  and  form. 

Christ  differs  from  other  evangelists  in  that  He 
bestows  so  large  a  part  of  His  attention  on  these 
degenerate  types.  By  an  earnest  and  ever  renewed 
evangelism,  He  forced  them  in  their  emptiness  and 
evil  out  into  the  light.  And  so  His  message  stood 
forth  in  many  aspects  individualized  by  the  antagon¬ 
isms  which  it  overcame.  As  against  a  system  of 
arid  opinion  and  positive  rule,  He  unveiled  a 
religion  of  love  in  which  sinners  won  by  the  sacri¬ 
fice  of  love,  served  in  the  liberty  of  love  and 
enjoyed  direct  communion  with  God.  Opposing 
the  self-sufficient  legalism  of  the  Pharisee,  He 
pierced  it  through  and  through  with  the  shafts  of 
righteous  criticism,  laying  bare  its  boundedness, 
externality  and  injustice,  and  brought  out  the 
ethics  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  lastly,  in 
contradiction  to  mere  worldly  religiosity,  living  for 
the  present,  He  portrayed  the  living  spirit  of  the 
religious  life,  its  filial  fellowship  with  the  Father, 
and  particularly  its  eternal  issues. 

Now,  there  were  several  effects  of  this  course 
pursued  by  our  Lord.  His  ministry  while  moving 
from  a  spiritual  centre  and  aiming  throughout  at 
the  one  end  of  bringing  men  to  God,  took  a 
broad  range  and  intermeddled  with  all  the  life  of 


128  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

His  time.  He  was  not  content  simply  to  unfold 
the  good  news.  His  ministry  was,  from  the 
centre  of  that  Gospel  so  to  unveil  human  life  in 
its  light,  that  men  could  not  fail  to  discern  the 
bearing  of  the  whole  on  every  duty  and  relation¬ 
ship.  In  Christ’s  view,  until  men  realized  this 
message  spiritually,  lived  it  ethically,  and  in  the 
power  of  it  rose  above  the  world  to  take  in  the 
eternal  issues  of  things,  they  had  not  grasped  His 
meaning  nor  fully  entered  into  life. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  this  formed  no  part  of 
the  conscious  aim  of  Christ,  having  been  forced 
upon  Him  by  untoward  circumstances.  A  careful 
study  of  the  Gospel  narratives,  however,  forbids 
such  a  conclusion.  In  the  great  discourse  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  spoken  in  a  Galilean 
seclusion,  where  there  is  manifest  a  conscious 
aim  on  the  part  of  our  Lord  to  give  a  sus¬ 
tained  view  of  the  Christian  platform  and  ideals, 
He  introduces  as  a  foil  to  His  presentation,  the 
externality,  the  self-seeking,  the  formalism,  the 
insincerity  of  the  Pharisees.  The  contrast  runs 
as  a  ground-tone  through  the  larger  part  of  His 
discourse.  Then  we  have  the  parables  of  the 
good  Samaritan,  the  Pharisee  and  the  publican, 
and  indeed  many  others.  Jesus  put  questions  to 
His  opponents,  as  well  as  met  those  which  were 
put  from  their  side.  At  least  a  third  of  Matthew  s 
Gospel  is  given  up  to  the  conflicts  of  Christ  with 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  129 


the  Jewish  reactionary  types,  or  His  teaching  in 
contrast  to  them.  In  the  heart  of  his  Gospel, 
John  devotes  more  than  six  chapters  to  the  con¬ 
troversies  which  were  pressed  by  the  Jews  as  to 
His  divinity  and  messiahship.  But  it  is  unnecessary 
to  labour  this  further.  The  way  in  which  these 
Jewish  parties  and  classes  are  shown  up  in  their 
limitations  and  triviality,  over  against  the  serene 
and  wonderful  mission  of  Jesus,  is  the  direct  re¬ 
flection  of  the  actual  effects  of  His  ministry  on 
every  side  of  the  life  of  the  time.  They  rose  up 
to  kill  Him,  because  they  had  no  other  resource. 
He  had  virtually  silenced  them  and  made  them 
ashamed  of  themselves. 

Now  it  is  from  this  standpoint  that  we  discover 
the  true  synthesis  of  our  Saviour’s  mission.  Those 
who  make  Jesus  an  ethical  teacher,  or  the  founder 
of  the  true  principles  of  society,  find  elements, 
equally  authenticated  in  His  words,  which  they 
cannot  reconcile  with  these  leading  aims.  Christ 
came  to  found  the  Kingdom  of  God,  to  bring  men 
into  the  fellowship  of  God,  and  God  into  the  life 
of  men.  In  this  He  was  reaching  out  to  the 
crown  and  completion  of  all  that  went  before,  and 
so  His  message  was  bound  to  have  bearings  on 
human  life  in  all  relations.  This  was  a  life  which 
would  go  out  into  the  unseen  and  therefore  the 
eternal  issues  of  life  must  be  kept  ever  in  view. 
No  one  has  taught  as  Christ  has  done  the  eternal 

1 


1 3o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


laws  of  character,  the  ceaseless  clashing  and  con¬ 
flict  of  human  ideals  among  the  millions  of  men 
under  the  sound  of  the  Gospel,  the  inevitable 
discrimination  into  two  camps,  two  ultimate  allegi¬ 
ances,  the  sheep  and  the  goats.  That  horizon  of 
eternity  envelops  His  whole  mission  and  message. 
While,  however,  this  eternal  scope  pervades  all 
that  Christ  says,  He  is  carried  with  all  the  greater 
illumination  and  force  into  the  present  ethical 
sphere.  He  portrays  the  principles  which  should 
animate  those  who  are  living  such  a  life  towards 
such  an  end,  the  relations  which  they  should 
sustain,  and  by  contrast  discovers  the  selfishness, 
the  insincerities,  the  downright  dishonesties,  the 
hideous  cruelty  and  wrong  of  lives  which,  with 
whatever  profession,  are  rooted  in  the  pride  and 
self-sufficiency  of  the  natural  heart.  No  wonder 
that  these  words  have  attracted  the  attention  of 
all  lovers  of  right,  of  all  who  war  with  human  in¬ 
equalities  and  wrong.  They  form,  taken  together, 
a  collection  of  ethical  precepts  to  which  the 
unsophisticated  mind  and  heart  of  all  men  say 
Amen.  But  they  are  not  Christ’s  gospel,  nor  are 
they  issued  as  an  ethical  creed  capable  of  universal 
application  to  every  problem  of  human  society. 
They  are  at  once  less  and  more.  In  the  hands 
of  a  religious  teacher  moving  to  bring  men  from 
all  self-centred  positions  into  the  fellowship  of 
God,  these  are  illustrations  of  general  principles, 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  1 3 1 


applications  of  moral  judgments  which  carry  us 
further  than  themselves. 

And  these  two  aspects  and  applications  of 
Christ’s  teaching  are  balanced  by  a  third  more 
pervasive  than  both, — the  inwardness  and  liberty 
and  grace  of  a  life  at  one  with  God,  manifested 
freely,  in  childlike  obedience,  loving  human  rela¬ 
tions,  eager  service,  radiant  simplicity,  unsulliable 
brightness,  amid  trial  and  sacrifice.  He  so  lived 
with  God  on  the  common  human  level  as  to  fill 
the  land  with  His  charm.  Destitute  of  every 
human  accessory  and  advantage,  He  compelled 
men  to  feel  that  this  was  the  ideal  life  for  which 
they  were  born.  So  convinced  were  they  of  this 
being  the  crowning,  all-embracing  good,  that  they 
left  all  and  followed  Him. 

Now  in  all  this  there  is  a  wisdom  to  which  we 
do  well  to  take  heed.  Following  these  reactionary 
and  decadent  types  of  belief  He  so  made  the 
spiritual,  ethical,  and  eternal  issues  of  the  Gospel 
stand  out  in  sublime  relief  over  against  their 
miserable  limitations,  as  to  make  His  message  live 
before  the  nation.  How  far  we  are  from  making 
the  outstanding  features  of  the  spiritual  view  of 
existence  stand  out  in  their  superior  glory,  above 
the  reactions  of  half-belief  and  no  belief  in  our 
time!  Within  the  Church  we  preach  spiritual 
truth  in  a  half-esoteric  way  to  the  experience  of 
spiritual  men.  In  our  evangelism  we  go  largely 


1 32  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


to  the  slums.  But  the  middle  classes,  whether 
externally  attached  to,  or  broken  with  the  Church, 
who  have  fallen  from  the  power  of  living  religion 
to  self-centred  standpoints,  intellectual,  ethical, 
practical,  the  very  classes  Christ  so  dealt  with,  we 
pass  by.  Millions  of  them  are  outside  the  real 
active  forces  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  And  so  far 
as  organized  effort  is  concerned,  or  even  solemniz¬ 
ing  impression,  we  let  them  remain  outside,  while 
we  go  to  men  who  are  no  more  our  brothers 
among  the  more  facile  poor,  or  even  the  heathen 
at  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

Certainly  let  us  remember  these  and  do  more 
than  we  have  ever  done,  but  our  first  duty  is  to 
begin  at  Jerusalem.  Let  us  so  unfold  the  Gospel 
of  God  given  through  Christ  for  the  salvation  of 
men,  that  in  comparison,  all  the  reactions,  intel¬ 
lectual,  moral,  and  practical,  in  which  men  are  to¬ 
day  finding  refuge,  will  stand  out  against  the 
living  word  of  Christ,  as  Sadduceeism,  Pharisaism, 
and  worldly  Judaism  generally,  stand  out  on  the 
sacred  page.  In  this  way  we  would  manifest  the 
measureless  resources  of  the  faith — its  heartsease 
and  rest  for  the  inward  being,  its  world  view  so 
satisfying  to  the  intellect,  its  ethical  standard  ex¬ 
posing  all  the  defective  standpoints  of  secular 
good,  its  eternal  outlook  which  can  alone  over¬ 
power  sensuality  and  worldliness.  We  should  fill 
the  whole  sphere  of  interest  in  Britain  as  our  Lord 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  133 


did  in  Jewry,  compelling  every  current  of  thought 
to  take  up  some  attitude  to  the  supreme  message 
of  Jesus. 

Instead  of  which,  to-day,  this  very  Gospel  is 
being  looked  upon  as  a  dead  machine,  something 
lying  outside  present  human  concern  and  the 
currents  of  the  world’s  life, — if  it  be  not  illusion, 
a  mere  waking  dream.  Thousands  are  going  for 
heartsease  to  Christian  Science,  are  resting  on  the 
mere  evolution  of  things  without  searching  into 
their  cause,  are  putting  utilitarianism  for  the  will 
of  God,  and  earth  for  heaven. 

And  from  this  ensues  a  further  consequence. 
Because  the  message  of  Jesus  was  brought  so 
powerfully  home  to  the  actual  life  of  the  time, 
and  stood  out  in  such  magnificent  contrast  to  the 
arid  intellectualism,  and  stern  lifeless  legalism  and 
worldly  formalism  of  the  day,  it  was  by  that  very 
circumstance  commended  to  the  masses.  Jesus 
had  no  difficulty  with  the  multitude,  except  in 
restraining  their  unbridled  enthusiasm.  He  had 
their  ear,  they  flocked  to  Him  from  every  quarter. 
Doubtless  the  wonder  and  the  blessing  of  His 
miracles  had  much  to  do  with  this  result.  But 
more  powerful  than  this  was  the  charm  of  His 
words.  Never  man  spake  like  this  man.  He 
taught  them  as  one  having  authority,  u  and  all 
bare  Him  witness  and  wondered  at  the  gracious 
words  which  proceeded  out  of  His  mouth.”  (Luke 


i34  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


iv.  22.)  The  poor  and  struggling,  whatever  their 
lives  may  be,  are,  in  sympathy  and  aspiration, 
idealists.  They  rise  in  response  to  lofty  concep¬ 
tions  of  human  duty  and  large  views  of  human 
brotherhood. 

And  we  should  have  no  difficulty  with  the 
masses.  Christ  would  win  them  by  His  servants 
as  He  won  them  in  Himself,  if  we  lived  the  Gospel 
we  preached,  if  we  unflinchingly  applied  this  truth 
of  God’s  grace  and  the  life  in  Him,  to  every  side 
of  human  nature  with  something  of  Christ’s  insight 
and  power.  As  there  were  reactions  in  His  day, 
contradicting  the  spirit  and  aim  of  His  Gospel, 
which  Jesus  took  pains  to  track  down  and  expose, 
so  that  the  bearing  of  His  teaching  might  stand 
out  in  more  definite  significance,  so  are  there 
reactions  in  our  day,  associated  with  a  profession 
of  religion,  which  unfairly  represent  or  even  con¬ 
tradict  essential  principles  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Must  we  not  then  without  seeking  to  be 
judges  or  dividers  in  such  matters,  or  presuming 
to  dictate  regarding  rival  social  schemes,  with  all 
courage  press  the  ethical  conclusions  from  the 
gospel  of  Christ,  and  counsel  men  to  live  and  act 
in  accordance  with  the  mind  of  their  Lord  ?  To 
stop  short  of  this  is  to  countenance  the  idea  that 
there  may  be  two  laws  of  life,  one  for  the  market 
and  one  for  the  Church,  while  there  can  only  be 
one.  What  the  believer  is  in  the  closet  that  he 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  135 


must  be  among  the  throngs  of  men.  And  the 
Church  without  flinching,  in  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  must  enunciate  the  practical  ideal  so 
far  as  to  give  inspiration  for  a  life  according  to 
the  mind  of  the  Lord. 

And  so  this  aggressive  and  conquering  evangel¬ 
ism,  continuing  from  generation  to  generation, 
never  given  up,  ceaselessly  being  adapted  to  the 
immediate  needs  of  men,  is  at  once  the  Church’s 
supreme  effort  to  realise  the  Master’s  purpose  of 
a  world-wide  kingdom,  and  the  means  by  which 
in  her  continuous  life  she  widens  in  scope, 
heightens  in  spirit  and  aim,  and  broadens  toward 
the  perfect  brotherhood  of  the  redeemed.  A 
thousand  opposing  influences,  bred  of  the  unre¬ 
deemed  selfishness  of  men,  tend  to  arrest  it  Again 
and  again  the  Church  has,  and  for  long  eras,  been 
diverted  from  her  true  end  with  disastrous  results 
in  division  and  decay.  If  we  would  bring  the 
centuries  of  reaction  and  stagnation  to  a  close,  and 
in  this  day  of  world-wide  opportunities  occupy  in 
Christ’s  name,  we  must,  under  a  wholly  new  sense 
of  its  importance  and  within  the  wide  horizons 
marked  out  by  Him,  proclaim  the  message  of  God 
to  the  limits  of  the  habitable  world. 

How  we  are  to  follow  Christ  along  these  lines 
of  His  activity  it  would  be  difficult  to  show.  We 
have  no  ready-made  answer.  Enough  to  realise 
the  ideal.  These  were  the  lines  along  which 


136  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Christ  went.  It  will  be  the  business  of  our  lives 
in  prayer  and  soul-wrestling  to  follow  Him.  Allow 
me,  however,  to  give  examples  from  Christ’s  own 
ministry  of  the  manner  in  which  He  performed 
that  task. 

The  first  reaction  from  living  contact  with  the 
spiritual  was  in  Christ’s  day,  as  in  every  genera¬ 
tion,  a  barren  intellectualism.  The  experiences 
of  their  fathers  have  become  concepts  or  dogmas, 
and  in  unspiritual  mood  men  develop  them  out  in 
logical  order  and  defend  them  with  logical  weapons. 
Of  course,  rational  men  must  hold,  as  thought 
in  their  minds,  what  they  have  proved  in  life. 
We  are  simply  referring  to  those  who  have 
let  go  the  spiritual,  if  they  ever  knew  it, 
keeping  only  the  shell  of  dogma  or  principle  or 
standpoint. 

As  in  our  own  day  so  in  that  time,  there  were 
vast  multitudes  for  whom  religion  meant  just  those 
specific  opinions  and  attitudes,  Sadducees  who  in 
their  coarse  rationalism  could  frame  grim  jokes 
about  the  woman  and  her  seven  husbands  to 
puzzle  believers  in  an  after-life,  Scribes  and  others 
who  were  learned  in  the  ritual  of  ceremonial 
requirement  and  could  fasten  on  the  least  devia¬ 
tion  from  the  duties  incumbent  on  a  Jew.  The 
difficulty  with  such  persons  in  that  day,  as  in  our 
own,  is  to  lift  them  out  of  their  externalisms  and 
carry  them  back  to  the  ground  of  religious  reality 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  137 


in  immediate  contact  with  God,  and  the  aroused 
sense  of  moral  and  religious  obligation. 

The  Gospels  bear  witness  to  Christ’s  marvellous 
power  in  bringing  men  to  that  spiritual  platform, 
set  up  in  His  discourse  at  Nazareth.  He  goes 
completely  behind  and  away  from  the  whole  world 
of  their  religious  conceptions.  When  they  urge 
their  objections  about  the  Sabbath  and  such  like, 
He  bandies  no  arguments,  but  in  a  word  of  inspira¬ 
tion  goes  up  to  the  living  principle  of  divine 
revelation,  which  lies  at  the  root  of  all  positive 
requirement,  UI  will  have  mercy  and  not  sacrifice.” 
(Matt.  ix.  13,  xii.  7.)  They  were  pushing 
irrationally,  and  out  of  season,  the  external  require¬ 
ments,  because  they  had  lost  sight  of  the  very 
principle  of  religion,  and  were  building  up  a 
system  of  self-righteousness.  When  the  Samaritan 
woman  in  self-defence  started  a  sectarian  discussion 
as  to  whether  Gerizim  or  Jerusalem  were  the 
proper  place  of  worship,  our  Lord  rose  to  the 
spiritual  standpoint  and  discovered  for  all  time  the 
essential  meaning  and  requirements  of  worship. 
a  God  is  a  Spirit :  and  they  that  worship  Him? 
must  worship  in  Spirit  and  truth.”  (John  iv.  24.) 

But  the  passage  which  furnishes  the  best 
sustained  view  of  the  contrast  between  Pharisaic 
religion  and  Christ’s  doctrine  of  the  free  fellowship 
of  love  with  the  Father,  is  in  the  middle  section  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  (Matt.  vi.).  What 


138  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


pictures  have  we  here  of  two  spiritual  levels  which 
told  their  tale  in  a  moment !  How  repulsive  the 
ostentatious  bargaining,  posturing,  hypocritical 
artifices  of  Pharisaism ;  how  serenely  pure  and 
beautiful  the  filial  life,  lived  in  the  eye  of  the 
Father,  finding  joy  and  motive  and  rest  in  Him, 
learning  love  from  His  love,  giving  in  self-oblivion 
of  any  sacrifice,  from  love  of  the  Divine  goodness, 
and  winning  through  sheer  spontaneity  of  love  the 
visible  crown  of  the  Divine  favour.  What  a  gulf 
too,  separated  the  parade  of  religiosity  and  fasting 
from  the  filial  joy  which  sought  the  Father’s 
presence  in  secret  for  His  own  sole  sake,  and  while 
radiant  before  the  world,  bore  inly  a  yoke  of 
sacrifice  which  only  His  eye  beheld.  If  we  could 
make  the  spiritual  life  so  bloom  before  men,  we 
should  win  from  all  wanderings  of  error,  hungry 
and  disconsolate  souls.  We  must  make  the 
spiritual  content  of  our  message,  the  beautiful 
resources  of  the  life  to  which  it  introduces,  live — 
so  live  in  men’s  view  by  preached  word,  literature, 
song,  life,  till  men  see  in  our  Gospel  the  one  perfect 
spiritual  ideal  of  the  race. 

Turn  now  to  the  second  great  reaction  of  the 
human  spirit  repeated  from  age  to  age — a  self- 
centred  morality,  the  attempt  to  put  all  the 
ethical  results  of  religion  to  the  credit  of  human 
nature.  Human  nature  is  always  ready  to  settle 
down  on  the  amount  of  ethical  good  which  it  has 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  139 


attained.  In  our  day,  among  all  civilised  peoples, 
the  sense  of  ethical  attainment  and  sufficiency,  like 
a  great  party  wall,  shuts  out  millions  from  that 
sense  of  humbling  and  defect  which  predisposes 
men  to  seek  salvation. 

Christ’s  exposure  of  the  inadequacy  of  this  boast 
on  the  part  of  the  Jewish  leaders,  is  among  the 
most  profound  and  searching  things  in  the  Gospels. 
Take  the  best  of  them  and  their  goodness  at  the 
best,  it  stopped  far  short  of  God — the  one  true 
goal  and  ethical  end  of  man.  In  no  case  could 
their  righteousness  enable  them  to  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  At  bottom  it  was  self-suffici¬ 
ency,  and  egoism  is  the  contrary  of  faith.  The 
publican  went  down  to  his  home,  justified,  but  the 
Pharisee,  sufficient  to  himself,  was  shut  into  the 
prison  of  his  own  pride.  His  boast  of  meeting 
every  requirement  of  God  discovered  his  alienation 
from  God. 

But  a  further  element  of  dishonour  to  God  was 
added  by  the  fact  that  they  based  their  claim  to  a 
verdict  of  righteousness  from  God,  upon  a  small 
externalism,  in  oblivion  of  the  weightier  matters  of 
the  law.  But  worse  than  that,  even  to  their  own 
utterly  vitiated  standard  of  right  they  were  untrue. 
No  great  teacher  whom  I  know  dwells  so  con¬ 
stantly  on  hypocrisy — conscious  deceit  and  untruth 
even  to  their  own  ideals.  They  sought  the  re¬ 
putation  rather  than  the  reality  of  sanctity.  They 


1 4o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


were  capable  of  using  religious  quibbles  to  evade 
plain  natural  duties,  in  a  spirit  of  profound 
insincerity.  They  bound  jots  and  tittles  of  a 
burdensome  law  on  the  people,  but  made  the 
largest  exceptions  for  themselves,  even  in  gravest 
matters  of  absolute  obligation.  And  so  when  a 
loftier  spiritual  right  and  the  sovereign  claim  of 
God  came  to  them  in  the  person  of  Christ,  they 
revealed  their  disloyalty  to  conscience,  by  resisting 
that  highest  right  for  their  interests’  sake,  even 
going  so  far  as  to  quench  the  Witness  for  the 
right.  They  were  searched  to  the  depths  by  the 
light  and  fire  of  God.  They  were  compelled  to 
see  themselves  as  they  were.  And  refusing  to 
recognise  these  realities,  clinging  to  the  super¬ 
ficialities  of  their  position  as  the  truth  of  their 
case — saying  they  had  no  sin — their  sin  was 
bound  on  them  for  ever. 

And  so  have  we  to  come  into  the  midst  of  our 
generation  and  show  the  defects  and  corruptions 
of  all  life  not  rooted  in  God.  Christ  was  loyal 
to  every  gleam  of  aspiration  He  found  in  any 
man,  but  He  was  inexorable  as  to  individual  and 
general  facts.  He  brought  out  everything  in  re¬ 
lation  to  the  one  true  light.  And  in  the  priestly 
spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  dowered  in  our  weakness 
with  the  power  of  His  holy  Spirit,  we  must  not 
only  draw  near  to  God,  but  interpret  God  in  His 
holiness  to  men.  We  must  seek  to  discover  not 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  141 


merely  as  a  doctrine  but  as  living  incontestable 
reality  the  gulf  that  stands  between  men  and 
God,  despite  all  their  moral  refinements  and  lofty 
standards  of  worldly  action.  Granted  that  in  many 
things  the  men  of  this  generation  are  superior  to 
those  who  went  before,  still  the  pride  of  their 
own  merits,  their  unrestrained  egoism,  have  set  up 
new  and  broader  barriers  than  ever.  They  are 
shut  in  from  God  by  the  self-sufficiency  penetrat¬ 
ing  their  moral  endeavours.  Instead  of  godliness 
there  is  a  fearful  impatience  of  God,  a  desire  to 
eliminate  Him  from  the  modern  life  of  man,  a 
self-sufficiency,  far  broader  and  deeper  than  the 
pharisaic.  Pride  in  the  resources  of  civilisation, 
in  our  power  of  discovery  and  invention,  in  our 
mastery  of  the  forces  of  nature  for  common  human 
ends,  have  created  a  self-centredness  not  so  re¬ 
pulsive  in  our  view  as  that  of  Christ’s  enemies, 
but  infinitely  more  intense  in  its  extrusion  and 
ignoring  and  positive  disregard  of  God.  Contrasts 
are  sharpening,  for  we  are  two  thousand  years 
nearer  the  final  severance  of  good  and  evil. 

What  fools  we  are  in  our  general  attitude  of 
mind  to  this  generation.  How  we  ought  to  throw 
ourselves  on  God  for  power  to  convince  the  world 
of  sin  in  the  Christian  view,  of  righteousness  in  the 
Christian  ideal,  of  a  judgment,  where  everything 
will  be  found  to  hang  on,  and  be  determined  by, 
our  master-relation  to  God.  And  we  must  not  hold 


142  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


back  from  exposing  the  inequalities  and  wrongs  of 
current  social  ideals.  We  must  humble  believers 
to  recognise  the  hideous  failures,  religious,  moral, 
social,  of  the  present.  This  is  not  our  rest  nor 
humanity’s  goal.  Not  only  did  Jesus  deal  with  the 
religious  insincerities  of  the  great,  but  with  the 
social  outcomes  of  their  supremacy,  the  lawyers 
binding  heavy  burdens,  devouring  widows’  houses, 
pervading  social  life  with  manifold  deceits,  display¬ 
ing  heartless  indifference  to  misery,  making  clean 
the  outside  of  the  cup  and  platter,  while  within  they 
were  full  of  extortion  and  excess. 

In  all  this,  however,  we  must  keep  the  dis¬ 
tinctively  Christian  ground.  It  is  so  easy  to  take 
up  with  merely  human  schemes  of  reform,  to  fall 
to  their  level,  and  merely  labour  for  their  immedi¬ 
ate  and  terrene  ends.  And  in  this  way  we 
contradict  the  universal  scope  of  our  message, 
by  identifying  ourselves  with  particular  classes 
and  schools.  This  were  a  profound  misfortune. 
For  men  are  only  too  eager  to  rule  themselves 
out  of  our  influence,  if  they  can  establish  just 
objections  to  our  theories.  We  must  never  forget 
that  our  end  is  to  bring  all  men  to  receive  God’s 
grace  :  and  we  expose  wrong  and  seek  to  sharpen 
the  moral  sensibilities  of  men,  to  draw  them  on  to 
desire  full  harmony  with  right,  by  submission  to 
the  loving  claim  of  God.  In  all  this  we  must  have 
supreme  loyalty  to  Christ,  and  seek  the  guidance 


LINES  OF  HIS  AGGRESSIVE  ACTIVITY  143 


of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  we  may  divide  rightly 
between  our  immediate  and  our  ultimate  aims. 

As  to  the  third  great  reaction,  turning  from  the 
eternal  issues  of  living  religion  to  rest  in  the 
present,  it  is  not  necessary  at  length  to  show 
how  Christ  discovers  and  exposes  this.  We  have 
dwelt  on  the  eternal  horizon  of  His  message,  His 
frequent  reference  to  the  issues  of  the  final 
judgment.  The  parable  of  the  rich  man  and 
Lazarus  was  a  bomb-shell,  bursting  in  the  heart 
of  the  worldly  religious  circles  of  that  time. 
And  even  more  powerfully,  the  parable  of 
the  rich  fool  discovers  the  rootlessness,  the 
isolation,  the  centring  in  his  own  petty  cares 
and  ambitions  of  the  man,  who  in  God  has  not 
laid  hold  of  the  eternal  and  spiritual.  In  this 
mysterious  universe  his  life  is  within  himself.  He 
is  met  in  the  story  by  an  embarrassment  of  plenty. 
And  this  godlessness  of  the  man  comes  out  in  two 
directions.  He  thinks  but  of  storing  his  wealth. 
He  owns  no  directing  mind  but  luxuriates  in  his 
own  cleverness.  And  more,  oblivious  of  every 
higher  need,  he  rejoices  in  having  built  up  a 
secure  happiness  in  which  he  may  think  only  of 
his  own  pleasure.  And  yet,  not  only  is  the  whole 
based  on  the  sand  of  uncertainty.  He  has  left 
the  main  factor  out,  something  which  does  not 
belong  to  the  world  of  things  nor  can  be  satisfied 
by  things — his  soul.  That  belongs  to  another 


i44  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


world,  has  other  needs,  must  face  other  responsi¬ 
bilities.  And  in  the  sudden  call  of  God  that 
unprovided-for  emergency  arises,  his  soul  is  re¬ 
quired  of  him,  and  while  he  goes  empty-handed 
to  his  account,  like  a  castle  of  cards,  his  assurances 
of  good  fall  to  the  ground.  For  all  the  world’s 
applause,  and  the  semblance  of  victory,  he  is  the 
fool  of  the  universe. 


THE  MINISTRIES  NORMAL  AND  EXCEP¬ 
TIONAL  BY  WHICH  HE  WOULD  ACCOM¬ 
PLISH  HIS  WORK 


K 


VI 


THE  MINISTRIES  NORMAL  AND  EXCEP¬ 
TIONAL  BY  WHICH  HE  WOULD  ACCOM¬ 
PLISH  HIS  WORK 

In  last  lecture  1  pointed  out,  in  relation  to  the 
continuity  of  the  Church’s  life,  the  ceaseless  effort 
which  she  must  put  forth  to  come  into  contact 
with  each  new  time,  and  the  consequent  expansion 
and  enrichment  of  her  activities  in  every  age. 
Because  of  this  double  aim  then,  the  ministry  or 
service  by  which  it  is  carried  through  must  be 
marked  by  certain  features  as  adjusted  to  these 
related  ends. 

Here  we  touch  the  confines  of  perennial  contro¬ 
versy,  not,  however,  to  be  drawn  into  the  vortex  of 
elaborate  discussion,  but  in  passing  forward  to  our 
more  practical  aim.  My  design  is,  from  the  teach¬ 
ing  of  Christ,  to  realize  (A),  the  important  place  and 
distinct  function  of  an  ordained  ministry  in  carry¬ 
ing  forward  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  (A),  the  room 
for  exceptional  ministries  from  time  to  time. 

(A)  That  it  was  Christ’s  intention  from  the 
beginning  to  carry  forward  His  Kingdom  by  a 


J47 


1 48  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


solemnly  called  and  duly  trained  ministry  is  beyond 
all  dispute.  His  choice  and  training  of  the  Twelve 
are  decisive  on  this  point.  And  answering  to  this 
element  in  His  ministry  is  their  appointment  to 
service.  “Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me”  (Acts 
i.  8).  The  Kingdom  was  to  continue  through  a 
human  ministry  from  age  to  age.  It  would  take 
on  the  type  and  form  given  to  it  by  their  activities 
and  results.  “  I  have  appointed  you  to  bring  forth 
fruit  and  that  your  fruit  should  remain”  (John  xv. 
1 6) — not  only  the  divine  substance,  but  the  human 
mould.  They  were  to  go  and  make  disciples  of 
all  nations — each  generation  entering  into  the 
vision  of  God  through  the  teaching  of  these  con¬ 
temporaries,  yet  each  brought  into  direct  contact 
with  the  divine  facts  for  themselves — baptized 
into  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son  and  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  and  all  of  them  coming  continuously  to 
the  standard  of  the  divine  Word,  teaching  them 
u  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you”  (Matt,  xxviii.  19). 

And  alongside  of  this  teaching  the  continued 
presence  of  the  Risen  Christ  with  His  Church  is 
taught  with  equal  emphasis,  “  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  ”  (Matt, 
xxviii.  20).  The  disciple  relation  is  perpetuated 
in  the  apostolate.  And  more  than  that,  the 
momentum  and  resources  of  the  Kingdom  are 
from  the  unseen.  “  All  power  is  given  unto  me 


THE  MINISTRIES 


149 


in  heaven  and  earth,  go  ye  therefore”  (v.  18). 
The  ministry  is  possible  on  earth  because  of  the 
infinite  resources  of  the  Son  of  God  on  the  throne. 
He  is  ruler  and  we  are  simply  ministers  of  His 
transmitted  powers. 

These  are  the  facts  or  rather  the  ideas  which 
entered  into  Christ’s  institution  of  the  Church, 
and  every  theory  of  the  ministry  must  account  for 
them  all.  Let  us  try  to  take  our  impression  direct 
from  them.  Manifestly  they  teach  not  so  much 
continuity  from  one  historic  beginning,  as  contact 
from  age  to  age  with  one  continuous,  reigning 
life.  The  continuity  is  in  Him  and  is  maintained 
by  Him.  He  holds  the  Church  of  the  Ages  as 
He  held  the  disciples,  by  the  magnetism  of  His 
person  and  influence. 

As  we  recall  the  words  of  our  Lord  this 
character  of  His  Kingdom  is  profoundly  impressed 
upon  the  mind.  In  connection  with  His  resur¬ 
rection  and  ascension  to  the  right  hand  of  God, 
this  whole  teaching  is  promulgated.  Risen  to 
the  throne,  He  will  have  henceforth  all  authority 
and  power  residing  in  Him  for  His  Church. 
They  are  in  His  hand  and  go  forth  to  service 
as  used  and  possessed  by  Him.  Their  standing 
is  in  Him.  Their  unity  and  possession  of  a 
common  life  are  in  Him.  And  this  presence  of 
Christ  in  His  own  is  to  continue  unhindered  from 
generation  to  generation.  He  guides  in  their 


150  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


corporate  actions,  serves  Himself  of  their  institu¬ 
tions,  uses  them  to  disciple  successive  generations. 
But  while  in  this  Church  giving  grace,  animating 
and  sustaining  her  activities,  crowning  with  blessing 
her  ministries,  He  is  in  her  as  sovereign,  having 
authority  and  power  in  His  own  hand,  working 
as  He  wills  to  ends  vaster  than  we  know. 

The  Roman  view  is  a  materialization  of  this 
spiritual  truth,  which  stands  alone  on  foundations 
peculiar  and  original, — a  conforming  of  the  heavenly 
Kingdom  to  earthly  kingdoms  with  their  rigid 
rules  of  succession.  The  localizing  of  grace  in 
the  Church  so  that  whatever  the  character  of  her 
ministers,  she  is  the  sure  imparter  of  it  to  those 
whom  she  calls  and  ordains,  separates  the  Church 
from  her  Lord  as  sovereign  in  her  counsels,  and 
sovereign  in  the  gifts  of  His  power.  Under  that 
theory  He  has  given  away  His  power  to  an 
organization,  able  at  will  to  command  His  re¬ 
sources,  and  with  exclusive  authority  to  bring 
men  to  Him. 

It  concerns  us,  as  against  this  sacerdotal  super¬ 
stition  to  keep  the  New  Testament  doctrine 
clearly  in  view.  If  money  be  in  my  purse  the 
same  coins  cannot  at  the  same  time  be  in  yours. 
But  if  you  have  truth,  my  possession  also  in  no 
way  robs  you.  Rome  with  its  doctrine  of  an 
exclusive  authority  in  her  apostolic  succession 
took  the  material  view.  Since  she  had  this 


THE  MINISTRIES 


151 

magical  authority,  none  other  could  possess  it. 
But  as  we  have  seen,  that  view  fatally  errs,  by 
falling  far  beneath  the  facts  of  the  case. 

What  constitutes  a  church  is  not  a  property 
of  wonder-working  received  from  another,  but  the 
continuous  presence  of  that  Other  with  all  who 
believe  in  Him  and  respond  to  Him.  What  He 
thus  comes  to  impart  is  Himself,  His  propitiation, 
His  life  in  God  through  the  Spirit.  All  are  on 
one  level  as  believers  before  Him,  but  as  He  may 
please  He  gives  gifts  of  preaching,  teaching,  and 
so  forth,  to  individuals  for  the  profiting  of  all. 

If  our  idea  of  the  Church,  then,  be  not  the 
Divine  dower  of  priestly  power  to  an  order,  but 
the  Divine  gift  of  grace  to  all  who  believe,  and 
a  ministry  of  service  to  help  on  that  work  of 
grace  in  the  individual  soul,  then  Christ’s  in¬ 
forming  other  communions  with  His  divine 
presence,  does  not  detract  from  His  presence  in 
our  fellowship.  Yea,  the  very  fact  that  in  the 
course  of  the  ages  churches  have  been  built  up, 
which  though  marked  by  diversity  of  external 
type,  yet  revealed  the  same  graces  and  powers 
of  spiritual  character  on  the  part  of  the  people, 
only  serves  to  accentuate  the  power  of  the  risen 
Christ  over  men  of  diverse  training  and  disposition. 
The  manifold  divergence  does  not  annihilate  the 
radical  oneness,  which  is  on  a  far  loftier  plane — 
being  divine — than  the  separating  conceptions  of 


152  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

man.  Each  organization  is  the  teacher  of  the 
others  in  those  respects  in  which  it  is  strong. 
While  through  the  long  historical  analysis  of 
separate  aspects  of  truth  and  polity  and  method, 
the  generations  are  taught  to  realize  ever  more 
fully  the  many-sidedness  of  the  Unity  which  is 
to  be. 

When  we  have  grasped  this  the  evangelical 
and  scriptural  view  of  the  Church,  we  are  very 
apt  to  fall  into  the  opposite  idea  that  there  was 
nothing  whatever  special  about  her  officials  and 
ordinances,  that  they  freely  developed  under  the 
pressure  of  exigency  according  to  the  wisdom 
given  to  each  particular  time.  That  this  principle 
had  large  place  in  the  New  Testament  Kingdom, 
recent  scholars  from  Hatch  to  Sabatier  have  con¬ 
clusively  proved,  but  that  it  accounts  for  the  entire 
institution  is  false  to  experience  and  opposed  to 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  central  office 
of  the  Church  in  the  Christian  ministry  is  far 
from  being  of  that  character. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  testimonies  of  the 
Gospels  support  the  view  that  the  continuity  of 
the  Church  is  to  be  secured  by  ceaseless  contact 
from  age  to  age  with  one  continuous  reigning 
life.  uLo,  I  am  with  you  alway  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world.”  This  being  kept  ever  in  view, 
that  the  empowering  and  disposition  are  in  His 
sovereign  hand,  then  we  come  to  a  second  great 


THE  MINISTRIES 


l53 


principle,  Christ  made  evident  from  the  beginning 
that  His  Kingdom  was  to  continue  by  a  human 
ministry  from  age  to  age.  A  central  act  of  His 
own  ministry  was  the  calling  of  His  twelve  dis¬ 
ciples  ;  and  the  training  of  these  for  the  work 
of  the  apostolate,  largely  engrossed  His  time  and 
thought.  This  ministry  is  not  an  historic  effect 
of  His  appearance  and  teaching  springing  up 
afterward,  but  a  creation  of  His  own,  an  original 
element  in  the  institution  of  His  Kingdom. 

What  did  this  act  of  Jesus  Christ  amount  to? 
Controversy  has  had  the  effect  of  throwing  us 
into  exaggeration  on  one  side  as  on  the  other, 
from  the  evangelical  simplicity  of  this  teaching, 
and  so  both  sides  have  lost  the  great  spiritual 
lesson  which  it  should  be  our  aim  to  recover. 

The  Protestants  were  wholly  right  in  their 
contention  against  Rome,  that  in  her  exclusive 
sense  her  priests  were  not  successors  of  the 
apostles.  The  powers  which  the  priests  arrogate 
as  successors  of  the  apostles  are  not  such  as  marked 
the  apostles  themselves.  The  soul  of  priestism  is 
dominion,  the  spirit  of  the  apostolate  was  “not 
that  we  have  dominion  over  your  faith  but  are 
helpers  of  your  joy  ”  (2  Cor.  i.  24).  Priests  teach 
a  mediate  approach  to  God  through  themselves 
and  the  ministries  of  the  Church,  the  apostles  an 
immediate  fellowship  with  God  through  faith. 
“By  faith  ye  stand.” 


i54  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


On  the  other  hand  by  insisting  that  the 
ministry  of  the  apostles  was  wholly  exceptional, 
ordained  for  a  specific  object,  characterized  by 
exceptional  powers  of  receiving  and  transmitting 
a  revelation  from  God,  the  Protestants  conveyed 
the  impression  of  their  own  ministries  being  on 
another  footing  in  respect  of  contact  with  Christ, 
more  distant  and  mediate  as  originating  through 
historic  channels,  and  therefore  less  authoritative 
than  the  Roman  priesthood  professed  itself  to  be. 
I  do  not  say  this  was  expressly  taught,  but  from 
the  general  course  of  the  Protestant  argument 
this  is  what  it  worked  out  to  in  the  judgment 
of  the  crowd. 

When  from  these  controversial  standpoints  we 
fall  back  on  the  Gospels,  we  are  in  another 
element,  where  these  controversial  standpoints  fade 
away  in  a  simpler  and  wider  truth.  What  domin¬ 
ates  all,  as  the  Gospel  day  merges  in  the  Apostolic 
era,  is  the  Son  of  God  crowned  with  all  power, 
and  risen  to  the  throne,  that  He  may  be  con¬ 
tinuously  and  all-pervasively  present  in  the  life 
of  the  whole  Church  from  age  to  age.  Thus  He 
receives  gifts  for  men,  and  imparts  them  in  their 
distinctive  qualities,  and  for  special  ends,  as  the 
several  ages  require.  The  Apostolate,  though 
called  to  an  exceptional  ministry,  stood  on  the 
ground  of  service  like  every  other  order  of  servant, 
and  their  exceptional  endowments  were  gifts  for 


THE  MINISTRIES 


l5S 

their  peculiar  service  in  the  dawn  of  revelation  and 
of  the  Kingdom. 

No  more  than  the  ministry  of  modern  days  was 
it  their  function  to  stand  between  Christ  and  the 
people  as  exclusive  channels  of  Divine  grace.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  they  received  the  revelation  of 
Christ,  and  personally,  or  by  those  who  absorbed 
their  influence,  wrote  out  its  substance  and  spiritual 
content  for  all  men.  In  this  they  performed  a 
specific  service  and  became  human  founders  of  the 
New  Testament  Church.  But  this,  though  un¬ 
exampled,  was  service  to  which  they  were  called 
and  for  which  they  were  empowered,  rendered  to 
the  brotherhood  as  our  commoner  services  are 
rendered.  This  did  not  raise  them,  nor  was  it  an 
outward  sign  of  their  being  raised  to  a  position  of 
intermediacy  between  Christ  and  His  people,  but 
was  service  done  by  Christ  to  His  people  through 
brethren  selected  and  prepared  for  this  task. 

That  this  is  the  true  meaning  of  their  position, 
is  evident  from  the  fact,  that  in  their  ministry  the 
ordinary  largely  mingled  with  the  exceptional. 
They  preached  and  evangelised,  as  other  men 
following  or  called  by  them.  They  were  em¬ 
powered  to  communicate  an  inspired  and  spiritually 
infallible  revelation.  But  they  had  no  brief  to 
set  up  an  inspired  and  exclusive  pattern  of  ecclesi¬ 
astical  polity,  as  Moses  had  been  in  the  wilderness. 
On  this  level  beyond  certain  essential  principles, 


156  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

arising  out  of  the  faith,  they  used  their  sanctified 
judgment  like  the  rest  of  us.  “It  is  not  reason 
that  we  should  leave  the  word  of  God  and  serve 
tables  ”  (Acts  vi.  2).  They  drew  up  a  reasonable 
and  provisional  human  compromise  at  the  first  council 
of  Jerusalem  (Acts  xv.  27-29).  Apostle  with¬ 
stood  apostle  in  their  differing  human  judgments 
(Gal.  ii.  1 1).  Still  in  virtue  of  their  peculiar  service 
as  the  companions  of  Christ  and  communicators  of 
revelation,  they  have  their  own  separate  and  com¬ 
manding  place,  which  has  only  stood  forth  in 
stronger  relief  as  the  implications  of  this  revelation, 
and  its  effects  in  the  world  have  been  more 
clearly  discerned. 

The  continuity  of  the  Church  lies  not  in  the 
continuity  of  an  order  maintained  in  regular  succes¬ 
sion  from  generation  to  generation.  That  is  an 
utterly  foreign  and  material  idea  imposed  on  the 
Christian  system.  We  must  enter  far  more 
fully  than  any  Christian  generation  has  ever  done 
into  the  fundamental  truth  that  the  Church  is  a 
spiritual  creation,  living  from  generation  to  genera¬ 
tion  in  the  life  of  the  Eternal  Risen  Son.  Nothing 
exists  as  the  specific  basis  of  the  Church  but 
Himself.  He  calls  forth  ministries  and  dispenses 
with  them  as  seems  good  to  Him.  For  any 
single-minded  Bible  student  there  is  no  possible 
question  as  to  the  unique  position  of  the  apostolate. 
These  servants  on  their  exceptional  plane  had 


THE  MINISTRIES 


l57 


done  their  work  as,  on  their  level,  the  great  creed- 
builders  and  the  reformers  performed  their  task. 
But  He  who  lived  on  in  the  Church  and  called 
forth  them  for  their  tasks,  working  within  the 
Church  now  formed,  called  forth  the  sense  of 
needed  government  and  guidance  among  the  com¬ 
panies  of  believers  ;  and  when  He  had  prepared 
them  to  welcome  such  assistance  He  laid  His  hand 
upon  individuals  whom  He  had  chosen  for  these 
tasks.  They  were  not  apostles,  for  the  work  of 
the  Apostolate  was  done,  but  in  their  own  order, 
and  for  the  work  requiring  to  be  done,  they 
were  as  immediately  the  choice  and  appointment 
of  Christ,  as  the  apostles  themselves,  their  em¬ 
powering  was  by  a  charisma  of  the  Spirit,  as  truly 
as  in  the  former  case. 

The  Church  is  as  truly  a  divine  institution  in 
the  twentieth  century  as  in  the  first.  Christ  is 
her  life,  and  He  calls  those  by  whom  He  may 
effectuate  His  will,  amid  the  peculiar  circumstances 
of  to-day,  as  He  called  the  apostles  for  the  task  of 
their  day.  And  we  are  or  should  be  as  immedi¬ 
ately  His,  standing  in  His  hand  and  power  and 
given  to  carry  out  His  ideal,  as  Paul  or  John  felt 
themselves  to  be.  We  are  no  speculators,  dis¬ 
covering  and  fixing  the  forms  of  truth  for  ourselves, 
we  are  no  adventurers  developing  institutions  at 
our  own  hand ;  we  are  not  merely  institutional 
servants  deriving  authority  from  and  simply 


158  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


promulgating  the  authoritative  dogma  of  the 
Church.  We  and  the  Church  derive  in  common 
from  the  Head,  and  while  the  Church  has  liberty 
to  try  the  spirits  whether  they  be  of  God,  it  is 
ours  in  the  liberty  and  power  of  the  Spirit  to  bring 
the  mind  of  Christ  to  the  Church. 

In  all  this  we  have  stated  nothing  which  goes 
beyond  the  accepted  teaching  of  the  Protestant 
Churches.  They  recognise  behind  the  call  of 
the  Church,  the  individual  call  of  Christ  to  the 
ministry.  Only  as  a  man  is  called  of  God,  and 
has  the  witness  of  this  within  his  own  spirit,  is 
he  worthy  to  receive  the  call  of  a  Christian  con¬ 
gregation.  In  some  communions,  at  the  ordination 
service,  the  minister  is  asked  to  give  an  account  of 
the  steps  by  which  God  had  led  him  to  take  up 
the  yoke  of  the  ministry.  And  the  nerve  of 
the  fierce  contendings  for  the  right  of  the  people 
to  elect  their  own  ministers,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  conviction  that  no  patron  or  civil  authority 
can  arbitrate  in  such  a  case,  that  only  the 
believing  people  themselves  can  discern  the  man 
taught  of  God  and  specially  fitted  to  meet  their 
spiritual  needs.  The  ecclesiastical  arrangements 
are  simply,  in  the  direction  of  giving  effect  to 
this  working  of  Christ  in  His  servants  and 
His  people.  And  then  Christ  is  pleased  to 
work  with  and  through  His  Church — making 
her  solemn  services  the  channels  of  His  power. 


THE  MINISTRIES 


*59 


u  Neglect  not  the  gift  that  is  in  thee,  which 
was  given  thee  by  prophecy  with  the  laying 
on  of  the  hands  of  the  Presbytery”  (i  Tim. 
iv.  14). 

There  are  the  very  strongest  reasons  why  we 
should  attach  the  utmost  importance  to  this.  In 
our  eagerness  for  liberty,  for  the  relaxation  of  all 
unnecessary  restraints,  we  have  become  in  measure 
oblivious  to  essential  verities,  Christ’s  continuous 
presence  in  the  Church,  His  choice  of  those,  by 
whom  His  will  shall  be  made  known,  and  His 
purposes  accomplished  from  age  to  age.  Because 
we  have  not  held  forth  the  true  authority  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  Gospel  ministry,  spurious 
authority  derived  from  a  material  apostolic  succes¬ 
sion,  or  from  connection  with  the  one  true  Church, 
founded  by  Peter,  has  experienced  a  calamitous 
revival  in  our  midst.  In  comparison  with  their 
historic  continuity,  or  unbroken  contact  with  the 
apostles,  we  have  been  made  to  appear  mere 
adventurers  and  free  lances  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ,  fighting  for  our  own  hand,  for  so  much 
of  Christ’s  teaching  as  we  are  pleased  to  accept — 
more  concerned  to  elaborate  our  own  theories 
and  positions,  than  to  let  Him  work  through  us, 
and  witness  by  our  spirit-taught  testimony  of 
Him  from  age  to  age. 

For  the  same  reason  there  has  been  a  strong 
and  growing  tendency  to  take  an  inadequate  view 


i6o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


of  our  ministry.  We  have  deserved  to  some 
extent  the  reproaches  which  the  so-called  historic 
churches  have  cast  upon  us.  With  all  our 
spiritual  activities,  missionary  labours,  and  fruitful¬ 
ness  in  human  service,  which  have  been  our  boast 
against  their  pretensions,  and  our  witness  to  them 
and  to  all  men  that  Christ  and  His  Spirit  were  in 
us,  we  have  not  realised  that  there  is  a  continuity 
although  not  their  continuity,  and  a  unity,  tran¬ 
scending  their  material  conceptions,  but  on  its 
spiritual  ground  more  real,  thorough-going,  far- 
reaching,  than  anything  which  they  have  dreamed. 
We  have  allowed  to  sink  out  of  view  the  concep¬ 
tion  of  a  Church  of  Christ,  continuous  through 
the  inabiding  of  the  risen  Christ  and  the  operative 
Spirit,  building  up  out  of  all  the  external  com¬ 
panies  of  the  saints  a  kingdom  of  redeemed 
humanity,  and  to  this  end  seeking  to  bring  the 
various  companies  or  communions  nearer  to  the 
heavenly  ideal,  and  thus  closer  to  and  in  more 
friendly  fellowship  with  one  another. 

And  so  the  note  of  the  apostolic  ministry  is 
not  in  ours.  We  do  not  yield  ourselves  to  Christ 
Jesus,  for  this  great  Divine  whole,  to  be  used  by 
Him  for  whatever  part  or  section  of  the  whole 
may  seem  good  to  Him,  but  ever  as  conserving 
and  building  up  the  whole.  u  Paul,  a  sent  man  of 
Jesus  Christ  by  the  will  of  God  to  the  Saints 
which  are  at  Ephesus;”  “Paul  and  Timotheus, 


THE  MINISTRIES 


161 


servants  of  Christ  Jesus  to  all  the  saints  in  Christ 
Jesus  which  are  at  Philippi.”  Such  were  the 
superscriptions  attached  to  the  Ephesian  and 
Philippian  Epistles,  carrying  the  counsels,  en¬ 
couragements,  and  reproofs  of  apostles,  and  of 
those  who  were  not  apostles,  like  Timothy.  They 
were  building  up  a  brotherhood,  not  merely  fencing 
a  creed.  They  were  extending  a  great  historic 
kingdom  in  which  Jesus  Christ  dwelt.  And  they 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  risen  Christ  for  that  end, 
and  by  His  Spirit  were  endowed  with  all-needed 
insight,  to  meet  the  ever  multiplying  wants  of  a 
growing  organism. 

Of  course  all  this — rightly  conceived—  is  con¬ 
sistent  with  the  intensest  individual  effort  for  the 
salvation  and  sanctification  of  believers,  and  with 
the  boldest  initiative  in  meeting  by  novel  method 
and  organisation  the  conditions  and  requirements 
of  a  new  time.  But  on  the  other  hand,  along 
with  this  latter  tendency  there  has  grown  up  a 
false  individualism,  which  exaggerates  distinctions 
of  individual  opinion,  which  encourages  separatism, 
which  gathers  men  into  narrow,  self- enclosed 
communions,  making  not  the  Divine  facts  of 
revelation,  but  distinctive  conceptions  regarding 
particular  points  and  ordinances,  the  basis  of 
fellowship.  Of  course  all  this  may  be  and  has 
been  consistent  with  deep  religious  earnestness, 
and  much  practical  fruitfulness.  But  none  the 

L 


1 62  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


less  the  general  tendency  is  inevitable,  to  make  a 
religion  of  distinctive  principles,  to  place  in  the 
foreground  corporate  interests,  to  stagnate  in  a 
decent  performance  of  religious  duty,  and  to  be 
content  with  a  profession  and  practice  far  short  of 
the  truly  Christian  ideals. 

And  haunting  this  divisive  and  individualistic 
tendency  is  a  constant  tendency  to  naturalism. 
The  falling  away  to  Unitarianism  of  that  Presby¬ 
terian  Church  which  was  so  great  in  England 
during  the  period  of  the  Commonwealth,  is  an 
instance  of  this  danger.  With  every  generation, 
the  maintenance  of  a  belief  in  the  supernatural 
order  of  things,  as  against  a  developed  scheme  of 
scientific  truth,  based  upon  natural  fact,  is  be¬ 
coming  more  difficult.  And  so  when  Christians 
are  standing  alone,  or  in  inconsiderable  sects,  in 
the  midst  of  such  a  natural  enlightenment,  there  is 
the  strongest  tendency  on  the  part  of  those  who 
have  not  their  fathers’  consecration,  to  tone  down 
the  faith  in  that  supernatural  order,  and  to 
approximate  to  natural  limits.  And  that  tendency 
is  as  powerful  to-day  as  in  any  past  time. 

The  one  unquestionable  foundation  of  a  super¬ 
natural  faith  is  the  demonstration  of  its  reality,  in 
a  kingdom  founded  on  its  principles  and  living  by 
its  light.  The  supernatural  can  never  be  com¬ 
pletely  vindicated  from  the  ground  of  the  natural. 
It  is  an  addition  to  the  natural,  a  revelation  super- 


THE  MINISTRIES 


163 

imposed  upon  the  natural.  And  the  highest  and 
only  confirmation  which  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
natural,  is  that  it  brings  in  a  reconciling  harmony, 
in  which  all  the  forces  and  processes  of  nature 
find  their  sufficient  explanation  and  their  fitting 
goal.  To  make  nature  and  natural  law  the 
standard,  and  forcibly  cramp  the  supernatural  to 
its  limits,  is  as  wrongminded  in  aim  as  it  must 
be  futile  in  result.  If  we  have  any  personal  ground 
then  for  belief  in  the  supernatural,  we  must  fall 
back  on  the  divine  facts  that  lie  behind  all  the 
theologies  (which  are  but  the  human  statement 
of  them)  realise  anew  fellowship  with  the  Son  of 
God  in  His  works  of  grace,  prove  His  presence 
by  the  Spirit  in  and  with  the  Church,  submit  to 
be  taught  and  led  by  Him,  and  working  with  these 
great  divine  factors,  take  our  place  of  service  in 
His  great  divine  Kingdom.  That  is  our  only  true 
attitude  to  a  supernatural  system.  And  thus 
standing  in  the  hand  of  God  and  proving  His 
power,  we  have,  in  orders  of  spiritual  and  social 
fact,  unquestioned  and  unquestionable  demonstra¬ 
tions  of  reality,  which  deliver  us  from  all  further 
necessity  of  establishing  the  truth  of  Christianity. 
The  necessity  is  rather  imposed  upon  those  who 
confine  themselves  to  the  natural,  to  explain  how 
on  their  principles  these  things  could  be.  Why ! 
herein  is  a  marvellous  thing — in  men  like  you  who 
profess  to  know  everything — that  ye  know  not 


1 64  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


whence  Christ  is  and  yet  He  hath  opened  mine 
eyes.  (John  ix.  30.) 

Our  work  then  is,  not  as  mere  successors  of 
anybody,  but  in  as  immediate  contact  with  Christ 
as  the  Apostles  themselves,  and  called  by  Him  for 
our  specific  task,  as  they  were  called  for  theirs,  to 
be  His  sent  men,  advancing  the  kingdom.  We 
have  dwelt,  it  may  seem,  at  undue  length  on  our 
views  of  the  ministry,  because  we  believe  that  on 
many  grounds  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to 
realise  our  immediate  relation  to  Christ,  and  the 
fact  that  we  are  being  sustained  and  sent  by  Him. 
Through  the  submission  of  our  wills  that  thence 
accrues,  Christ  comes  into  His  Church  afresh  to 
guide  and  inspire  His  people  for  a  present  service ; 
and  on  our  part  we  can  count  on  having  with  us 
the  witness  and  power  of  His  Spirit,  testifying  in 
human  hearts  that  we  are  His  ambassadors,  work¬ 
ing  His  spiritual  wonders  by  our  hands. 

But  further,  we  are  led  into  a  view  of  our 
Christian  ministry  very  different  from  what  obtains 
at  present,  and  which  comes  into  the  heart  of  the 
subject  which  we  are  discussing  in  these  lectures. 
The  idea  is  far  too  prevalent  that  the  regular 
ministry  of  the  Church  exists  mainly  for  the 
culture  of  Christian  people,  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  organised  activities  of  the  Church,  and  that 
aggressive  work,  whether  in  dealing  with  the 
careless  and  indifferent  or  in  making  a  stand 


THE  MINISTRIES  165 

against  social  evil  and  error,  is  to  be  undertaken 
by  outside  evangelistic  and  other  agencies.  But 
the  futility  of  this  conception  is  becoming  every 
day  more  apparent.  The  centre  of  aggression 
should  be  the  Church  herself.  Through  all  her 
ministries  of  teaching  and  training  there  should 
run  the  most  powerful  aggressive  note.  She  exists 
to  advance,  to  claim  in  each  age  the  new  genera¬ 
tion  for  Christ,  and  so  to  nurture  her  people  that 
they  shall  be  helpers  in  pressing  that  claim,  and 
themselves  the  best  commendation  of  that  claim. 
If  she  be  thus  on  fire  with  her  world-mission,  all 
her  out-branchings  of  activity  will  partake  of  that 
expansive  spirit.  While  if  the  Church  be  quiescent, 
maintaining  rather  than  extending  her  position,  her 
home  evangelisation  will  only  touch  as  at  present 
those  already  convinced,  and  her  foreign  missions, 
after  the  first  outburst  of  enthusiasm,  will  settle 
down  amid  abounding  heathen  populations,  to  the 
staid  ways  and  the  slow  progress  of  home. 

The  view  that  we  have  taken  of  Christ’s  im¬ 
mediate  relation  to  those  whom  He  has  called  in 
every  generation,  has  a  further  happy  consequence. 
It  enables  us  to  utilise  with  discernment,  and  yet 
for  great  practical  profit,  the  teaching  of  Matt.  x. 
The  general  consideration  which  should  govern  us 
in  interpreting  this  passage,  is — the  plan  of  Jesus 
was  and  is  to  carry  forward  His  Kingdom  by  human 
ministries  suited  to  the  conditions  of  succeeding 


1 66  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


ages.  This  is  how  He  charged  in  the  case  of  His 
first  servants,  the  Apostles,  in  their  peculiar  place. 
And  further,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  this  is  His 
charge  to  them  not  in  respect  of  what  distinguished 
their  ministry  from  all  others,  the  receiving  and 
delivering  of  a  revelation,  but  about  the  duties  of 
their  ministry  which  were  common  to  them  with 
all  teachers  and  preachers  of  Christ. 

This  being  the  case,  then,  we  may  conclude  that 
although  time  and  place  and  even  the  progress  of 
the  kingdom  may  introduce  alterations  as  to  details, 
yet  these  counsels  in  essentials  must  have  the 
closest  bearing  on  all  who  are  called  of  Christ  for 
service.  As  to  alterations  in  detail,  we  find  them 
in  regard  to  the  disciples  themselves  at  different 
times  of  their  lives.  They  who  were  at  first  com¬ 
manded  to  confine  themselves  to  the  lost  sheep  of 
the  house  of  Israel,  after  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
received  the  widely  differing  charge.  “Ye  shall 
be  witnesses  unto  me  .  .  .  unto  the  uttermost 
ends  of  the  earth.”  (Acts  i.  8.)  He  who  in  the 
beginning  enjoined  “  Provide  neither  gold  nor 
silver  nor  brass  in  your  purses,  nor  scrip  for  your 
journey,  neither  two  coats,  neither  shoes  nor  yet 
staves”  (Matt.  x.  9,  10),  afterwards  enjoined 
“But  now  he  that  hath  a  purse  let  him  take  it 
and  likewise  his  scrip,  and  he  that  hath  no  sword 
let  him  sell  his  garment  and  buy  one.”  (Luke 
xxii.  36.) 


THE  MINISTRIES 


167 


The  lesson  from  all  this  however,  is  not  that  the 
circumstances  being  dissimilar,  the  charge  is  in¬ 
applicable,  but  the  very  different  and  far  more 
comforting  one,  that  Christ  charged  for  that 
generation  in  its  characteristic  individuality,  because 
He  would  be  with  each  generation  in  the  dis¬ 
tinguishing  features  of  its  time,  counselling  and 
ordering.  The  Spirit  would  be  present  in  each 
generation  to  guide  as  to  the  particular  exigencies 
of  that  time  ;  but  the  central  lessons  would  abide 
ever  the  same.  Let  us  with  all  brevity  gather 
those  thoughts  of  the  Master  as  to  all  ministry  for 
Him.  The  (1)  first  great  lesson  for  us  to  learn  is 
our  immediate  relation  to  the  risen  King  in  this 
service,  and  His  presence  with  us.  u  These  twelve 
Jesus  sent  forth  and  charged  them  saying”  (v.  5). 
No  man  is  fit  to  be  used  until  not  only  is  he 
called,  but  taken  into  the  secret  of  the  Master’s 
counsel,  and  so  bound  to  specific  ministry  as  the 
Lord  has  illumined,  that  henceforth  he  bears  the 
Lord’s  charge.  Christ’s  presence  in  His  Church 
is  far  more  intimate  and  sovereignly  controlling 
than  most  have  awakened  to  discern. 

Then  (2)  choosing  His  own  servants  and  training 
them  for  Himself,  He  sends  them  out  amid  the 
confusions  and  reactions  of  each  generation,  with  a 
fresh  vision  of  the  unchanging  word,  fitted  to 
awaken  new  and  sublime  hopes  for  men.  In  this 
world,  where  the  mass  of  men  have  totally  missed 


1 68  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


life’s  good  and  the  best  have  not  attained,  the 
Church  comes  to  say,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
(v.  7) — the  ideal  of  all  good  for  you — is  at  hand. 
When  the  Church  or  the  individual  preacher 
cannot  make  the  world’s  heart  ring  amid  the  felt 
desolation  of  the  present,  with  that  vision  of  hope, 
then  this  is  true,  that  man  or  Church  is  not 
living  in  the  close,  continuous  fellowship  of  Christ 
and  speaking  as  charged  by  Him. 

But  (3)  not  only  is  Christ  in  and  with  the 
preacher  giving  and  firing  His  message,  He  is 
leading  those  who  defer  to  Him,  as  to  place  and 
manner  and  time.  It  is  His  will  to  be  the  general 
in  the  campaign.  How  many  enterprises  have 
been  fruitless  because  ordered  by  human  wisdom 
according  to  natural  probability.  On  the  other 
hand,  even  in  these  last  generations,  what  wonders 
have  been  wrought  by  those  who  waited  on  Christ 
and  took  His  way !  It  is  most  interesting  to 
notice  how  in  all  this  Christ  draws  His  servants  so 
near  to  Himself.  At  that  time  He  was  arousing 
men  by  miracle,  to  realize  that  a  divine  messenger 
had  come  to  destroy  the  disorders  of  the  world  by 
divine  power,  so  as  to  awaken  their  sere  hearts  to 
higher  hopes.  And  Christ  gives  to  them  to 
repeat  these  wonders. — Heal  the  sick  cleanse  the 
lepers,  etc.,  (v.  8).  And  what  He  gives  to  you 
and  me,  as  we  yield  ourselves  to  Him,  is  what  He 
feels  to  be  His  own  message  for  the  actual  hour. 


THE  MINISTRIES 


169 


u  The  works  that  I  do  shall  ye  do  also  and  greater 
works  than  these  shall  ye  do  because  I  go  to  the 
Father.”  (John  xiy.  12.) 

So  much  for  the  presence  of  Christ  with  His 
own.  Note  (4)  the  authoritative  character  of  this 
ministry.  We  do  not  go  in  our  own  names 
nor  claim  acceptance  in  the  measure  of  our  own 
worth.  We  dare  not  leave  out  the  element  of 
authority  with  which  we  are  invested,  carrying 
Christ’s  message  in  dependence  on  His  continual 
guiding.  These  earliest  immature  workers  went 
to  every  place  as  the  messengers  of  the  King. 
They  watched  the  response  of  the  people  as 
indicating  their  attitude  to  the  Master.  They 
trusted  themselves  to  the  love  of  the  people. 
There  was  One  with  them  who  could  make  return 
for  every  pulse  of  natural  kindness.  And  in  all 
these  impulses  of  their  hearers  there  were  deeper 
forces  at  work,  winning  men  in  those  simple  acts 
to  a  deeper  love,  a  higher  unselfishness.  We  are 
not  leaning  on  Christ,  we  are  not  living  wholly 
for  the  glory  of  Christ,  if  we  do  not  feel  that 
He  is  with  us  discovering  men  in  the  response  of 
their  hearts  to  us,  that  in  His  grace  and  power 
we  may  get  close  to  them  for  encouragement  and 
rebuke. 

(5).  The  spiritual  endowment  of  this  ministry. 
We  are  sent  out  into  a  hostile  world — as  sheep  in 
the  midst  of  wolves.  In  every  age  there  is  the 


170  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


unsubdued  hostility  blossoming  out  now  into  one 
extremity  of  evil,  now  into  another.  In  these 
unforeseen  hostile  conditions  the  servant  is  to  have 
no  fear.  He  is  under  no  necessity  of  searching 
out  precedents.  One  who  can  sound  to  the  depth 
every  variable  element  of  the  new  time,  will  give 
to  him  who  leans  upon  God,  the  answer  of  the 
moment  for  the  moment,  not  a  human  expedient 
but  the  Spirit  of  the  Father  speaking  through  His 
servant,  the  irrevocable  word  (v.  20).  Indeed 
amid  conflicts  and  exigencies  and  out-flamings  of 
hatred  incalculable,  holding  on  in  faith  the  servant 
of  Christ  shall  escape  and  prevail. 

(6).  The  obscurations  of  evil  that  fall  on  this 
ministry.  A  disciple  is  not  above  his  master. 
His  testimony  will  meet  continually  every  artifice 
of  evil  to  nullify  its  influence  and  pervert  men. 
If  Christ  was  called  Beelzebub,  nothing  that  can 
blacken  our  testimony  will  be  withheld.  Fear 
them  not,  says  Christ,  in  a  magnificent  courage. 
Trust  the  sifting  and  searching  of  time.  There  is 
nothing  covered  that  shall  not  be  revealed  (v.  26) 
— neither  the  craft  of  the  false,  nor  the  rounded 
verity  of  the  true.  And  do  not  trim;  u  what 
you  have  learned  of  me  in  the  deeps  of  your  soul, 
speak  out  as  truth,  in  the  light  of  universal  human 
knowledge.”  It  will  stand  every  test  of  reality. 
And  for  yourselves,  if  you  have  fear,  let  it  only  be 
of  playing  false,  and  falling  under  the  power  of 


THE  MINISTRIES 


171 

evil.  For  yourselves  have  no  fear,  the  very  hairs 
of  your  head  are  all  numbered  (v.  30). 

But  (7)  This  ministry  will  send  a  sword  on 
the  earth.  God’s  truth  for  man’s  salvation  will 
rouse  all  varieties  of  rejection  and  response,  all 
degrees  of  difference  among  those  who  re¬ 
spond,  and  thus  new  elements  of  division  will  per¬ 
meate  all  relations  of  life  (vv.  34,  35).  And  this 
fiery  searching  of  the  truth  will  create  the  fiercest 
moral  tests  for  the  witnesses.  Some  will  com¬ 
promise  to  win  the  favour  of  the  worldly,  others 
will  assert  false  liberties  to  please  those  who  irk 
the  full  Christian  restraint.  They  who  would 
be  faithful  witnesses  must  postpone  all  earthly 
joys  and  even  life,  to  the  discharge  of  this  duty. 
This  will  mean  cross-bearing,  if  we  would  be 
worthy  of  our  Lord.  The  issues  are  of  life 
and  death,  and  God  will  weigh  in  His  balances 
kinds  and  degrees  of  reward. 

Such,  according  to  this  great  testimony  of  Matt, 
x.,  is  the  magnificent  scope  of  Christ’s  institution 
of  witness,  founded  by  the  Apostles,  continued 
by  Him  from  age  to  age,  in  the  call  of  ever  fresh 
witnesses,  and  through  them  of  a  believing  people. 
We  have  to  enlarge  our  ideas  of  the  Church  then, 
rather  than  confine  them,  to  widen  our  congrega¬ 
tional  scope  so  as  to  include  those  aggressive 
ministries  with  which  I  chiefly  deal.  Still  when 
we  have  entered  fully  into  the  idea  of  Christ  it 


172  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

must  be  recognised  that  there  are  Exceptional 
Ministries  called  into  being  for  a  time,  and  ending 
with  the  time. 

(A.)  Let  us  deal  then  very  briefly  with  these 
Exceptional  Ministries.  It  would  demand  some¬ 
what  lengthened  treatment  to  present  Christ’s 
view  of  all  the  activities  which  would  arise  because 
of  the  presence  of  His  Gospel  and  Kingdom  in 
the  world.  Here,  as  often  elsewhere,  we  are 
overwhelmed  at  the  superhuman  discernment  of 
Christ.  He  saw  that  these  would  so  strike  into 
the  heart  of  the  world’s  life,  that  many  move¬ 
ments  of  human  thought  would  flock  like  birds 
to  their  branches,  (Mat.  xiii.  32),  that  individuals 
would  have  all  sorts  of  trains  of  thought  started 
by  the  impact  of  His  spirit,  and  in  the  largeness 
of  His  heart  He  said,  u  He  that  is  not  against 
us  is  on  our  part.”  (Mark  x.  40.)  But  while 
welcoming  the  outcome  of  all  these  activities  He 
does  not  commit  Himself  to  them. 

He  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  spon¬ 
taneous  testimony  of  all  believing  souls.  He 
honoured  the  silent  witness  in  act  of  the  woman 
that  was  a  sinner,  and  of  Mary  the  sister  of 
Martha  and  Lazarus.  To  the  man  delivered  of 
the  legion,  He  said,  u  Go  home  to  thy  friends 
and  tell  them  how  great  things  the  Lord  hath 
done  for  thee.”  (Mark  v.  19.)  Yea,  such  testi¬ 
mony  was  so  natural  and  spontaneous,  that  He 


THE  MINISTRIES 


l73 

was  more  concerned  to  repress  unsuitable  testi¬ 
mony,  than  to  urge  to  its  exercise. 

With  regard  to  this  important  and  pertinent 
subject,  there  is  one  passage  singularly  fruitful. 
In  the  second  of  the  great  series  of  parables 
recorded  in  Matt,  xiii.,  we  read  the  good  seed, 
the  vital  germs  of  further  growth,  are  the  children 
of  the  Kingdom,  (v.  38.)  In  a  later  parable  He 
compares  them  to  a  leaven,  each  grain  setting 
in  ferment  other  grains.  And  still  again,  in  the 
vital  mass  of  believers  constituting  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  there  grows  up  a  law  of  structure,  as 
from  the  mustard  seed ;  because  of  the  life  of 
love  which  is  in  them  they  naturally  form  into 
an  organised  whole.  And  to  this  organised 
brotherhood,  God  by  the  Spirit  gives  His  charis¬ 
mata  as  we  see  fully  developed  in  the  later  teaching 
of  Paul.  (1  Cor.  xii.)  Thus  the  called  and  or¬ 
dained  ministry  is  a  specialised  and  peculiarly 
endowed  form,  of  that  common  subjection  and 
service  which  each  believer  as  such  owes  to 
His  Lord,  called  and  furnished  by  the  Lord  for 
the  instruction,  defence,  and  maintenance  of  His 
church  from  age  to  age. 

There  is  an  account,  specially  given  by  Luke 
(x.  1-20),  of  an  exceptional  ministry  appointed 
at  a  time  of  great  interest,  which  is  very  sugges¬ 
tive.  We  allude  to  the  mission  of  the  Seventy. 
These  were  not  in  any  sense  permanent  officers. 


174  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

Appointed  for  this  task,  they  gave  in  their 
account,  and  apparently  stepped  back  into  the 
ranks  of  the  membership.  In  external  form  the 
charge,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  not  dissimilar  to  the 
more  elaborate  charge  to  the  Twelve.  Yet  we 
hold  it  to  be  manifestly  distinct.  Jesus  is  about 
to  take  His  last  missionary  journey  to  Jerusalem 
before  the  feast  of  Tabernacles.  Much  appears 
to  turn  on  that  progress.  It  might  be  that  there 
would  be  a  great  ingathering.  It  wras  wise  to 
make  provision  for  either  event.  And  so  He  sent 
them  u  two  and  two  into  every  city  and  place 
whither  He  Himself  would  come.”  (x.  6.)  After¬ 
wards  He  speaks  of  them  as  babes  in  Christ, 
but  they  were  to  go  in  His  power  for  this 
specific  task.  And  all  the  more  for  their 
very  weakness,  His  power  went  with  them. 
u  He  that  heareth  you  heareth  me  ;  and  he 
that  rejecteth  you  rejecteth  me  ;  and  he 
that  rejecteth  me  rejecteth  Him  that  sent  me.” 
(v.  1 6.) 

What  the  actual  issue  of  this  ministry  was  we 
cannot  very  accurately  determine.  Jesus  realised 
that  the  harvest  to  be  reaped,  now  or  later,  truly 
was  great.  But  as  plainly  there  were  hostile 
elements  of  many  kinds.  Unbelief  had  closed 
many  hearts  against  Him  in  Galilee,  unbending 
hostility  was  to  meet  Him  in  Jerusalem.  Still 
there  were  also  powerful  believing  currents,  and 


THE  MINISTRIES 


l75 

Jesus  would  draw  them  to  a  head  and  make  them 
ready  for  His  ministry. 

Sometimes  a  mighty  work  of  conviction  is  done 
without  great  outward  results,  cc  and  the  Seventy 
returned  with  joy.”  (v.  12.)  The  power  working 
with  them  achieved  greater  victories  than  they 
had  been  called  to  win,  “  Lord,  even  the  devils 
are  subject  unto  us  in  Thy  name.”  (v.  17.)  And 
in  these  Jesus  saw  a  prophecy  of  His  own  triumph. 
For  He  is  ever  with  His  people,  and  takes  en¬ 
couragement  from  their  successes.  aI  beheld 
Satan  as  lightning  fallen  from  heaven.”  (v.  18.) 
And  then  since,  though  their  special  mission  was 
done,  their  work  of  witness  would  only  end  with 
life,  He  gave  to  them  perhaps  the  most  magnifi¬ 
cent  assurance  of  triumph  vouchsafed  during  His 
earthly  ministry.  “  I  have  given  you  authority 
to  tread  upon  serpents  and  scorpions,  and  over 
all  the  powers  of  the  enemy ;  and  nothing  shall 
in  any  wise  hurt  you.”  (v.  19.) 

Christ  is  sovereign  in  His  own  Church.  It  hath 
pleased  Him  to  work  through  great  continuous 
organisations,  and  by  men  regularly  called  and 
appointed  to  ministry.  But  He  is  free  to  step 
aside,  when  it  pleases  Him,  and  all  through  the 
centuries  He  has  laid  hands  on  elect  souls,  clothed 
them  with  His  power,  sent  them  forth  to  specific 
tasks,  and  oftentime  has  conferred  on  them  faith 
and  spiritual  courage,  and  achieved  by  them 


176  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


results,  that  have  been  an  example  and  an  in¬ 
spiration  to  the  whole  Church  of  God.  u  No 
flesh  must  glory  in  His  presence.”  No  office 
or  organisation  must  arrogate  an  independent 
authority,  or  put  themselves  between  Christ  and 
the  soul  as  necessary  to  salvation.  They  are 
only  means,  and  if  Christ  is  pleased  ordinarily 
to  work  through  them,  He  can  work  apart  from 
them  at  His  good  pleasure.  Christ  is  all  and 
in  all. 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM: 
THE  AWAKENING  OF  FAITH 


VII 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM: 

THE  AWAKENING  OF  FAITH 

In  the  light  of  all  that  we  have  laid  down,  we  now 
come  to  the  immediate  dealing  of  Christ  with 
men.  We  have  grown  up  within  Christian 
influences,  accustomed  to  Christian  methods,  and 
so  are  little  able  to  recognise  their  originality  and 
the  remarkable  insight  and  depth  of  view  which 
they  display.  In  such  regions  of  truth  as  this  we 
attain  to  fresh  vision  and  power,  not  by  going 
away  from  Christ’s  revealed  will,  but  by  sinking 
deeper  into  the  unplumbed  treasures  of  the  divine 
thought. 

Note  the  originality  of  Christ.  No  one  in  the 
whole  history  of  time  ever  spoke  to  man  from  this 
standpoint.  Here  He  stands  on  a  plane  absolutely 
alone,  as  manifestly  above  all  human  levels  in  His 
method,  as  in  the  substance  of  His  revelation.  He 
does  not,  after  the  manner  of  the  philosophers, 
begin  by  relating  men  to  the  system  of  things 
surrounding  them,  and  so  lead  them  out  to  God, 
and  discover  their  relation  to  Him.  It  is  very 


179 


180  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


significant  to  note,  as  discovering  the  relation  of 
the  ministry  of  Jesus  to  the  general  thought 
movement  of  the  world,  that  He  leaves  that  whole 
region  of  human  exploration  to  stand  where  it  was, 
and  went  forward  into  a  higher  field,  where  He 
was  going  to  make  anew  even  the  crowning 
contribution  of  time.  He  does  not,  like  the  ancient 
teachers  of  the  east,  demonstrate  finite  nothingness, 
and  urge  men  to  absorption  in  the  divine.  And 
still  more  remarkable  He  does  not  even,  like  His 
own  apostle  Paul,  begin  by  demonstrating  human 
sinfulness,  and  so  shut  men  up  to  absolute  depend¬ 
ence  on  another.  Do  not  misunderstand  me,  I  am 
speaking  of  His  immediate  method,  not  of  the 
ultimate  outcome  of  His  mission.  I  am  not  of 
those  who  think  that  there  is  a  discrepancy  between 
Jesus  and  Paul.  They  wrought  to  exactly  the 
same  issue.  The  outcome  of  Christ’s  dealing  with 
men  was  that  they  had  no  cloak  for  their  sin. 

More  simply,  more  immediately  as  one  who  was 
truly  man,  dealing  with  men,  He  spoke  to  the  spirit 
in  man.  What  we  are  only  beginning  to  discern 
as  a  psychologic  fact,  looking  back  we  can  see 
that  Christ  fully  recognised.  As  man  has  a  whole 
region  in  him  looking  out  to  the  external  world, 
and  reducing  to  knowledge  what  the  senses  have 
discovered  to  the  soul,  so  there  is  another  region 
in  man  which  looks  out  to  God.  May  I  be  per¬ 
mitted  on  this  point  to  quote  some  words  from  a 


CHRISTS  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


1 8 1 

paper  of  my  own  delivered  as  a  Murtle  Lecture 
before  Aberdeen  University.  The  subject  was 
u  The  Ascendency  of  the  Spiritual  in  Recent 
Thought.”  u  The  spiritual  is  a  distinct  sphere  of 
the  human  soul  moving  from  within,  having  its 
own  organ  of  knowledge,  its  own  objects,  its  own 
method,  its  own  results.  As  the  senses  are  a 
fundamental  endowment  of  the  being,  looking  out 
to  the  external  world,  so  the  personality  has  faculties 
moral  and  spiritual,  which  have  immediate  affinities 
with  the  spiritual  world,  which  receive  impressions 
from  that  world,  and  which  become  powers  in  the 
life  through  these  impressions.  The  sense  of  the 
right,  the  thirst  for  a  chief  good,  the  instinct  of 
dependence,  the  strong  propension  of  the  reason 
to  find  a  moral  and  religious  meaning  girdling 
the  course  of  events,  are — roughly  and  popularly 
speaking — elements  of  that  spiritual  side. 

u  Now  though  these  powers  use  reason  in  their 
later  stages  and  can  always  vindicate  themselves 
in  the  courts  of  reason,  they  do  not  work  by  reason¬ 
ing.  They  leap  instinctively  into  exercise  by  the 
contact  of  the  personality  with  another  and  higher 
personality.  Face  to  face  with  the  Christ,  men 
had  no  cloak  for  their  sins.  The  moral  nature 
within  them  leaped  up  in  witness  irresistible  to  the 
rightness  of  the  right  as  discoverable  by  Him. 
When  He  revealed  love  as  the  source  and  end  of 
all,  when  God  stood  unveiled  in  His  purpose  of 


1 82  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


love,  and  the  great  outline  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
as  sketched  by  Jesus,  took  possession  of  them, — 
men’s  natures  instinctively  opened  to  the  light. 
Great  and  small,  learned  and  simple,  whatever  they 
might  do  with  them — receive  or  reject — found  a 
witness  in  themselves  to  these  unveilings,  a  deep 
assent  of  inalienable  faculties  of  their  own  being 
which  had  hitherto  been  dormant.  And  these 
results  of  conviction  and  hope  were  not  by  reason, 
but  from  instinctive  impressions  in  the  sphere  of 
the  moral  and  spiritual.” 

In  addition  to  these  general  principles  we  must 
keep  in  view  the  considerations  advanced  in  the 
third  lecture.  We  have  not  here  simply  the  naked 
impression  of  personality  on  personality.  We 
learn  from  Dr  Martineau  the  leading  place  which 
that  has  to  play  in  all  moral  advance.  But  in 
Christ  we  have  a  perfect  personality  absolutely 
free  from  stain,  living  in  an  immediate  conscious¬ 
ness  of  union  with  God,  and  with  this  there  was 
also  a  flooding  of  the  divine  spirit,  which  made  im¬ 
mediately  and  powerfully  communicable  to  others 
what  reigned  within  His  own  soul.  He  did  not 
need  to  fix  doctrinal  positions.  He  shone.  God, 
a  personal  Spirit,  holy,  loving,  gleamed  forth  in 
His  consciousness  of  them.  Yea  more,  His  disciples 
saw  Him,  who  as  man  was  one  of  themselves,  in  the 
very  sunshine  of  this  divine  communion,  and  reveal¬ 
ing  in  the  calm  rapture  and  obedience  of  His  life, 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM  183 


as  in  a  transparency,  the  glory  of  the  Eternal  God. 
That  a  personality  thus  crowned  with  divine 
favour  should  make  a  profound  impression  is  what 
might  be  expected.  But  what  Jesus  watched  for 
amid  the  notes  of  joy,  wonder,  conviction  of  sin, 
and  the  conflict  of  debate,  was  for  the  unex¬ 
tinguished  sense  of  God  in  man.  He  did  not 
judge  men  by  the  common  standards  of  position, 
professional  religious  reputation,  or  even  exterior 
decency.  All  men  had  sinned,  and  where  that 
was  a  fact,  the  degrees  of  appearance  were  in  no 
sense  decisive.  All  men  had  sinned,  but  in  whom 
was  there  still  alive  and  unstifled  the  sense  of  God, 
of  the  soul’s  need  of  Him,  which  might  be  fanned 
into  a  flame. 

He  thus  kept  knocking  at  the  bottom  door  of 
the  soul,  by  what  He  was  as  well  as  by  what  He 
did,  by  works  of  power  no  less  than  by  touches  of 
human  sympathy.  He  knew  that  God  was  work¬ 
ing  with  Him.  The  tendency  of  sin  is  God- 
disowning,  to  stifle  the  soul’s  very,  ultimate,  sense 
of  dependence  on  another.  God  has  been  drawing 
where  any  yearning  is  manifest ;  Jesus  takes  hearts 
that  open  as  those  whom  the  Father  has  given. 
And  still  He  throws  the  net  wide,  u  Whosoever 
will  let  him  take  the  water  of  life  freelv.”  He 

j 

makes  no  account  of  degrees  of  sin.  a  Who  has 
the  open,  who  has  the  opener  heart  ?  ”  The  past  is 
dead  and  done  with.  The  Lamb  of  God,  as  John 


1 84  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


said,  is  going  to  take  away  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world.  To  arbitrate  between  varying  measures  of 
sin,  where  all  were  involved  in  a  common  charge 
and  need,  would  decide  nothing.  The  one  point 
was,  is  there  anything  restorable,  to  which  by  any 
and  every  art  God  can  make  appeal  ? 

Here  we  reach  absolute  blinding  mystery. 
How,  where  all  have  sinned  some  should  respond, 
while  others  do  not,  we  cannot  tell.  None  come 
without  the  Father,  the  Son  could  not  welcome 
all,  unless  He  knew  the  Father  willed  them  to 
come.  This  leads  us  down  into  obscure  regions 
of  the  personality  whither  we  cannot  follow.  It 
is  very  instructive  to  notice  Christ  Himself  acknow¬ 
ledging  limits  in  the  humanly  knowable,  clearly 
recognising  on  the  one  hand  that  in  His  wdiole 
personality  He  is  grappling  with  the  deepest  in 
man  ;  that  everything  depends  on  whether  men 
freely  and  voluntarily  respond ;  and  more,  that 
what  they  are  in  very  essence  is  discovered  in  that 
act ;  yet  on  the  other  hand,  bowing  to  the  fact 
that  beyond  these  plain  ethical  issues  which 
nothing  could  interfere  with,  are  mysteries  of 
divine  sovereignty  to  be  acknowledged  even 
where  they  cannot  be  explained.  If  Christ  left 
that  mystery  there,  surely  we  may. 

If  anywhere  we  feel  our  need  of  a  baptism  of 
Christ’s  spirit,  and  an  entrance  into  some  measure 
of  His  communion  with  the  Father,  it  is  surely  here. 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM  185 


Do  we  not  need  also, — engaged  as  we  are  in 
a  wrestling  with  human  souls,  which  has  its 
aspect  of  impenetrable  mystery — a  consciousness 
that  we  are  in  the  hand  of  God,  that  He  is 
working  in,  and  working  with  us,  to  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  His  design.  But  passing  these  con¬ 
siderations,  let  us  proceed  to  deal  with  typical 
cases  in  which  Christ  comes  actually  into  contact 
with  human  beings,  in  the  endeavour  to  awaken 
faith  within  their  seared  hearts.  (A.*)  To  begin 
with  let  us  deal  with  representations  to  be  found  in 
the  Synoptic  Gospels.  And  (i?.)  let  us  go  forward 
to  the  more  sustained  and  far-seeing  views  to  be 
found  in  John’s  Gospel. 

(A.')  Illustrations  from  the  Synoptic  Gospels. 

And  (1)  notice  the  boldness  with  which  He 
responded  to  the  vilest  and  worst.  He  fell  back 
of  all  our  categories,  and  took  in  all  classes  and 
degrees  of  sinners.  In  every  human  being  as 
such  there  was  the  image  of  God  blurred  but  not 
defaced.  Not  a  son  or  daughter  of  Adam  but  has 
such  a  witness  of  God,  that  each  knows  himself  or 
herself  a  wandered  sheep  from  the  fountain  of 
being.  And  so  Christ  makes  appeal  to  this 
inherent  sense,  no  matter  where  the  possessor 
may  be.  And  where  there  is  a  response  however 
limited,  what  a  royal  welcome  each  receives.  He 
says  to  the  penitent  thief,  u  To-day  shalt  thou 
be  with  me  in  Paradise.”  (Luke  xxiii,  43.) 


1 86  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


For  the  woman  that  was  a  sinner  he  put  in  the 
plea,  “she  hath  loved  much;”  to  her  He  said, 
“  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee.”  (Luke  vii.  49,  50.) 
He  had  an  unapproached  sense  of  the  worth  of 
human  nature  as  made  by  God,  and  knew  that  He 
was  speaking  to  that  in  men  which  must  respond, 
whatever  their  choice  might  be.  He  was  blind  to 
our  distinctions,  and  travailed  for  a  murderer  on 
His  cross,  for  a  town  drab  in  her  shame,  with  an 
almost  matchless  subtlety  and  zeal.  And  He 
waited  for  the  awakening  in  their  souls  of  the 
sense  of  God,  with  as  patient  and  subtle  endeavour 
as  in  the  case  of  Peter  and  John. 

Nowhere  are  we  further  away  from  Christ  than 
at  this  point.  We  are  far  too  professional — and, 
living  in  civilization,  we  have  adopted  its  standard 
of  judgment  regarding  men.  I  mean  that  uncon¬ 
sciously  and  involuntarily  we  are  governed  by  this. 
And  the  standard  of  judgment  in  civilization  is  a 
property  standard.  The  cheapest  of  all  cheap 
entities  are  the  unemployed  masses  in  town  and 
country,  and  the  shiftless  multitudes  who  have  lost 
the  basal  habit  of  industry  and  are  sunk  utterly 
below  the  self-subsistence  level.  They  are  worth 
nothing  in  the  popular  view,  yea  a  purely  negative 
quantity,  being  a  burden  on  industry  and  property. 
And  as  men  remove  from  this  standard,  and  by 
muscle  or  brain  vindicate  a  position  for  themselves, 
they  rise  in  value. 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM  187 


Even  for  the  material  ends  of  a  temporal  civiliza¬ 
tion  that  is  a  blunder.  But  a  Church  can  only  live 
by  ceaseless  protests  against  this,  by  showing  that 
with  her  Lord  she  regards  the  personality  of  man 
to  be  of  an  infinite  worth,  as  compared  with  the 
measure  of  temporal  good,  and  by  actually  laying  her 
plans  to  bring  human  beings  without  distinction  of 
circumstances  into  the  Kingdom.  Our  Lord  elected 
to  live  at  the  base,  on  the  plane  of  poverty,  that 
He  might  be  level  to  the  needs  of  the  poorest. 
Whether  that  is  called  for  or  would  be  wise,  in  the 
existing  circumstances  of  the  Church  within  the 
modern  state,  may  fairly  enough  be  matter  of 
wholly  sincere  discussion.  The  labourer  is  worthy 
of  his  hire.  And  if  voluntarily  from  love  a  com¬ 
munity  out  of  her  abundance  pours  her  treasures 
into  the  hand  of  the  Church,  then  God  can  con¬ 
secrate  that  benevolence  on  the  part  of  the  people 
to  be  a  blessing  to  the  Church,  making  it  the 
means  of  fuller  equipment  and  expansion. 

But  whenever  amid  the  fluctuations  of  spiritual 
zeal  and  love,  a  Church  has  reached  a  standard  of 
comfort  and  general  expenditure,  which  makes  it 
necessary  that  her  dominant  note  of  appeal  should 
be  for  self-maintenance,  she  becomes  a  dependent 
on  the  moneyed  classes,  and  the  tendency  of  the 
poorer  classes  is  to  drift  into  isolation  if  not  revolt. 
The  ministry  of  the  Church  becomes  a  ministry  to 
those  who  can  support  ordinances.  In  other  words 


1 88  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


the  Church  has  succumbed  so  far  to  the  standards 
of  the  civilization  in  which  she  lives.  True  the 
leaven  of  Christ  in  her  will  never  allow  her  to  fall 
to  this.  And  so  she  makes  efforts  to  reach  the 
poorest.  But  these  efforts  are  merely  appendages 
to  what  is  regarded  as  her  main  mission,  made  to 
conscious  inferiors,  and  pervaded  by  doles  and 
treats  far  beyond  the  brink  of  necessity,  to  keep 
them  in  pleased  subjection  to  their  betters.  That 
is  the  general  situation  to-day.  Of  course  there 
are  numerous  consecrated  souls,  oblivious  to  the 
surface  distinctions  of  men,  working  in  a  spirit  far 
more  closely  conformed  to  the  ideal  of  the  Master. 
But  that  is  the  aspect  which  the  activity  of  the 
Church  presents  on  the  whole  and  to  the  world 
at  large. 

These  last  paragraphs  may  appear  a  digression, 
but  they  go  to  the  centre  of  the  mission  problem. 
Until  we  come  to  Christ’s  view  of  man  as  man, 
realise  the  capacity  for  the  divine,  lurking  in  every 
human  soul,  steadily  discern,  looking  past  the  shows 
of  time,  that  the  jewel  in  all  men  of  infinite  worth 
is  just  this  buried  potentiality  of  being  recovered 
to  the  fellowship  of  God ;  and  that  in  this  connec¬ 
tion  rags  or  royal  robes,  a  cubicle  in  a  lodging- 
house,  or  a  suburban  villa,  or  for  that  of  it  a  ducal 
palace,  are  to  be  considered  just  as  they  are  hinder¬ 
ing  or  helping  to  this  spiritual  consummation.  If 
we  were  with  Christ  on  that  plane,  if  we  compelled 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM  189 


men  by  all  our  acts  to  see  that  we  were  on  that 
plane,  would  we  not  reach  the  common  heart? 
Would  there  not  ensue  a  truer  sense  of  the  inherent 
worth  and  dignity  of  man,  and  would  not  an  arrest 
be  laid  on  the  blind  and  voracious  worldliness  of 
the  present  day,  which  would  reverberate  with 
power  on  every  social  scale  ? 

The  bare  mention  of  these  things  discovers  how 
far  we  have  fallen  even  from  the  level  of  former 
times,  and  how  profoundly  we  require  a  baptism 
into  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  How  we  may  rise 
in  these  respects  to  a  realisation  of  that  spirit,  and 
give  full  effect  to  them  in  our  organised  church 
life,  are  questions  full  of  difficulty.  But  these 
lectures  are  addressed  to  young  and  uncommitted 
lives  in  preparation  for  the  ministry,  and  it  is  of 
the  first  importance  to  such,  frankly  to  realise  the 
failures  of  the  past,  and  carefully  consider  our 
unrealised  Christian  ideals. 

(2)  Notice  the  secret  of  Christ’s  boldness. 
Spiritual  truth  is  subject  to  depravation  more  than 
any  other  species  of  verity.  Because  it  is  highest, 
subtlest,  and  most  inclusive,  men  are  apt  to 
interpret  it  in  terms  of  lower  truth.  How  did 
He,  the  clearest,  calmest  seer  of  the  ages,  with 
His  eye  on  the  ultimate  good  which  He  wished 
to  impart,  feel  free  to  throw  Himself  on  all  classes 
and  conditions  of  men,  and  respond  with  such 
fulness  to  the  feeblest  uprising  of  faith? 


1 90  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


We  do  not  ask  this  in  the  hard  and  legal 
prudence  of  deistic  times.  We  must  trust  our¬ 
selves  to  men  if  we  would  be  trusted,  we  must 
love  to  be  loved.  Our  question  is  how  could 
Christ  magnetise  men  and  raise  them  to  the  level 
on  which  He  would  meet  them?  There  is  such 
room  for  misapprehension.  Men  respond  to  re¬ 
ligious  appeals  on  all  sorts  of  levels,  thirsting  to 
escape  consequences,  animated  by  an  alarmed  self- 
interest,  merely  dominated  by  passing  fear,  goaded 
by  guilt,  without  a  whole-hearted  resolve  to  have 
done  with  evil  the  cause  of  guilt.  But  it  is  im¬ 
possible  to  portray  the  Protean  shapes  of  human 
spirits,  amid  the  shadows  of  evil  awakened  to 
anxiety  and  fear.  Many  teachers  deliberately  hold 
back  from  pressing  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ, 
as  an  immediate  reason  why  men  should  turn  and 
believe,  because  of  the  mixed  elements  which 
enter  into  every  revival  movement,  and  the  fre¬ 
quent  disappointment  and  failure  which  ensue. 
They  preach  truth,  they  discover  the  scriptural 
conditions  of  a  saved  and  sanctified  character,  and 
leave  the  truth  to  make  its  own  impression  on 
men.  Thus,  however,  they  are  only  fulfilling  half 
their  mission.  An  ambassador  makes  much  of  the 
honour  and  dignity  of  his  master  who  has  sent 
him,  pleads  for  the  reception  of  his  master’s  pro¬ 
posals,  and  if  they  are  rejected,  departs.  And 
God,  besides  giving  the  scriptures,  calls  living 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


191 

servants,  that  in  the  burning  consciousness  of 
the  reality  and  preciousness  of  the  message  which 
they  bring,  they  may  speak,  and  that  with  God’s 
authority  they  may  invite,  entreat,  command  men 
to  receive.  “  As  though  God  did  beseech  you  by 
us,”  says  Paul,  u  we  pray  you  in  Christ’s  stead,  be 
ye  reconciled  unto  God.”  (2  Cor.  v.  10.)  “We 
received  grace  and  apostleship  for  obedience  to 
the  faith  among  all  nations.”  (Rom.  i.  5.) 

Whatever  the  difficulties,  we  may  not  shirk  the 
duties.  We  must  put  ourselves  in  the  breach  as 
the  commissioned  servants  of  Christ,  to  awaken 
faith,  and  deal  directly  with  men  about  their 
relation  to  the  living  God.  And  the  secret  of  our 
strength  lies,  where  our  Master’s  lay,  in  a  personal 
holiness  which  rebuked  sin,  while  it  discovered 
Divine  love ;  and  in  a  filial  passion  for  the  glory 
of  God,  which  in  Christ’s  ministry  ever  drew 
sinners  past  mere  blessings,  even  when  He  dwelt 
on  them,  to  God  as  the  one  object  of  the  soul,  to 
the  life  in  God  as  the  true  life,  to  the  glory  of  God 
as  the  one  sufficient  end  in  all.  But  even  beyond 
that,  let  us  rise  to  the  solitary  greatness  and 
majesty  of  this  work.  Here  we  have  the  conflict 
of  light  with  darkness  in  the  soul.  All  the  subtle 
influences  of  evil  are  arrayed  against  the  good. 
And  not  only  do  we  require  that  holiness  and 
filial  passion  for  God,  to  set  our  message  in  the 
true  light,  but  the  illumination  of  the  Holy  Spirit 


1 92  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


to  give  our  words  carrying  power,  and  to  plant 
the  living  truth  in  human  hearts  over  against  every 
subtle  twist  and  perversion  of  evil.  And  so  we 
are  called  to  raise  a  direct  issue  in  the  light  and 
power  of  God,  right  round  the  whole  circle  of  the 
personal  spirit  of  man,  at  every  point  where  appeal 
may  be  made  for  God  as  against  evil.  Such  is 
the  apparatus  of  grace,  if  I  may  so  speak,  for 
reducing  a  human  soul,  and  in  the  centre  of  that, 
placed  by  God,  the  preacher  is  an  essential  human 
factor. 

(3)  Let  us  now  consider  somewhat  more  dis¬ 
cursively  what  is  included  in  Christ’s  immediate 
aim — the  appeal  to  and  awakening  of  faith.  The 
objection  is  sometimes  raised  that  it  is  incredible 
that  man’s  everlasting  welfare  should  necessarily 
be  bound  up  with  a  belief  in  certain  ultra-rational 
doctrines  and  principles,  about  which  men  may 
have  divergent  views,  or  regarding  which  they 
may  see  fit  to  abstain  from  having  any  positive 
opinions.  And  many  whom  reverence  might  retain 
from  going  so  far,  are  puzzled  to  find  faith  made 
the  central  requirement,  and  not  character  and 
conduct.  The  religion  of  Christ  claims  to  reveal 
the  absolute  ethical  ideal,  and  to  have  the  sole 
power  of  bringing  men  into  complete  conformity 
with  that  ideal.  And  many  are  stumbled  at  the 
assertion  that  they  can  only  come  into  this  heritage 
by  an  act  of  positive  allegiance  to  a  personal  Christ. 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


l93 


We  shall  find  the  complete  answer  to  these 
difficulties,  and  along  with  that  a  new  insight  into 
the  profundity  of  Christ’s  method,  by  studying  in 
detail  two  instances  where  Christ  specially  com¬ 
mends  the  act  of  faith.  And  first  the  remarkable 
case  of  the  centurion  (Matt.  viii.  5-13).  This 
was  a  friendly  heathen  who  stood  outside  the 
covenant  people.  The  hopes  and  promises  of  the 
Old  Testament,  which  predisposed  the  Jews  to 
expect  a  Messiah,  and  which  shut  up  many  to 
Jesus  as  the  Messiah  because  of  His  evident  ful¬ 
filment  of  them,  were  simply  non-existent  for  him 
as  a  Gentile.  The  problem  of  life  existed  for  Him 
as  for  other  men,  and  he  had  evidently  thought 
seriously  over  it.  Loyal  to  all  the  facts  before 
him,  including  the  fact  of  his  own  personality,  he 
believed  in  an  intelligent  government  of  this  uni¬ 
verse.  And  taking  as  an  illustration  the  analogy 
nearest  him,  he  conceived  of  an  organised  govern¬ 
ment  like  that  of  Rome. 

All  that  he  had,  before  he  came  into  touch 
with  Christ,  and  might  have  continued  to  possess, 
if  he  had  never  come.  Faith  in  him  was  some¬ 
thing  more  and  deeper.  When  he  saw,  endowed 
with  powers  which  were  evidently  from  God,  one 
who  appealed  to  what  was  highest  in  him — mercy 
and  goodness  being  on  a  scale  that  made  him 
shrink  from  entering  such  a  presence — then  by 
what  we  can  only  call  a  spiritual  intuition,  he  rose 


194 


THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


to  the  conviction,  that  in  this  man  was  a  discovery 
of  the  divine.  Jesus  might  only  be  an  emissary 
of  the  central  authority,  but  He  revealed  Him  and 
acted  for  Him,  and  as  in  an  organised  state  all 
things  obeyed  that  holy  will. 

Essentially  he  went  for  the  highest  right  and 
good  he  knew,  witnessed  to  his  soul  by  Christ, 
apart  from,  despite  of  every  other  consideration, 
embraced  it,  followed  it,  drew  upon  it,  assured 
that  that  could  never  fail.  That  was  his  faith 
viewed  in  its  ethical  core,  and  surely  you  discern 
how  fundamental  and  far  reaching  it  was.  Only 
from  such  an  embracing  of  essential  good  as 
ultimate  in  the  universe,  can  the  loftiest  ethical 
life  spring.  And  whatever  further  experiences 
may  follow  this  act  of  God’s  free  grace  such  as 
pardon,  justification,  sonship,  which  of  course 
must  be  formulated  in  doctrines,  yet  the  primary 
act  is  of  the  nature  I  have  described — the  depths 
of  the  being  turning  to  the  light,  leaning  their 
whole  weight  on  perfect  goodness  in  God,  dis¬ 
covered  in  Christ.  I  shall  yet  bring  out  in  sub¬ 
sequent  sections  the  centrality  of  this  decision  in 
relation  to  the  whole  sum  of  human  experiences. 
But  even  as  we  leave  the  matter  now,  do  we  not 
see  the  fundamental  character  of  Christ’s  quest, 
and  of  the  issue  which  he  forces  upon  men. 

Take  now  the  case  of  the  Syrophenician  woman 
— recorded  by  Matthew  and  Mark.  Though  out- 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


*95 


side  the  circle  of  the  covenant  people,  she  asks 
that  the  demon  may  be  cast  out  of  her  daughter. 
Here  we  have  not  so  reasoned  a  faith  as  that  of 
the  centurion.  But  we  have  a  more  remarkable 
surmounting  of  all  barriers,  and  at  the  end  a 
victorious  leap  of  trust  which  has  scarce  a  parallel 
in  the  Gospel  story.  The  barrier  lies  in  the 
restriction  divinely  imposed  upon  the  mission  of 
Christ.  “  I  am  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost  sheep  of 
the  house  of  Israel.”  (Matt.  xv.  24.)  Here  were 
power  and  will  to  heal  manifestly  from  God,  and  yet 
here  also  from  God  was  this  rule  barring  her  out. 
Christ  makes  her  feel  this  to  the  full — first  of  all, 
not  answering,  then  declaring  the  limits  of  His 
mission,  then  almost  in  the  language  and  seemingly 
in  the  spirit  of  a  Jew,  putting  the  matter  crudely, 
bluntly  so  as  to  inflict  pain.  “It  is  not  meet  to 
take  the  children’s  bread  and  cast  it  unto  dogs.” 
(v.  26.) 

Nothing  more  beautiful  was  ever  uttered  by 
human  lips,  or  welling  up  from  a  profounder  deep 
of  faith.  “Truth,  Lord.”  She  bows  before  the 
sovereign  will.  He  has  a  right  to  do  what  pleases 
Him  with  His  own.  He  may  exalt  some  and  con¬ 
serve  for  them  peculiar  privileges,  and  leave  others 
comparatively  in  the  place  of  outcasts  or  dogs. 
But  God  would  not  make  a  dog  for  whom  He 
would  not  make  some  provision.  He  is  not  force  or 
evil  but  good,  and  He  would  have  some  consideration 


1 96  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


for  the  least  creature  He  made.  Thou,  Lord,  hast 
made  me  feel  this  as  never  before,  and  in  my 
misery  I  appeal  to  that  consideration  in  the  Divine 
heart.  The  centurion  learned  of  Christ  that  the 
good  was  supreme  and  trusted  it.  The  woman 
went  straight  to  the  heart  of  God,  of  which  she 
had  caught  a  glimpse  in  Christ,  and  founded  her 
plea  on  the  goodness  that  was  in  Himself. 

Now  to  travel  no  farther,  in  these  instances  do 
we  not  see  that  Christ  spoke  to  the  deepest  depth 
of  each  one,  and  drew  forth  a  central  transfiguring 
decision,  that  must  henceforth  colour  all  they 
were.  He  came  not  to  condemn  the  world  but 
to  save.  His  question  ever  was,  (assuming  sin),  is 
there  anything  in  this  man  or  this  woman  which 
might  be  drawn  back  into  the  recognition  and  love 
of  God  ?  If  there  was,  and  it  responded,  then  His 
whole  being  went  out  in  love  to  that  soul  in  the 
dawn  of  faith.  In  that  opening  eye,  that  feebly 
beating  heart,  Christ  saw  the  possibility  of  life 
eternal.  If  as  in  the  case  of  the  woman  that  was 
a  sinner,  one  turned  with  the  whole  heart  in  an 
outburst  of  eager  desire,  Christ  saw  a  soul  utterly 
impatient  of  bondage,  and  held  her  up  as  a 
superior,  before  the  dignified  Pharisee,  who  allowed 
his  dignity  of  place  and  pride  of  attainment,  to 
bridle  and  repress  the  new  and  deeper  hunger 
after  God. 

And  to  Him  the  sin  of  all  sin,  inclusive  of  all 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


197 


other  sins  and  transcending  them,  was  this,  that 
evil  had  sapped  in  so  far,  as  to  kill  the  last  trace 
of  belief  in  any  meaning  of  goodness  in  the  uni¬ 
verse.  When  in  utter  heartless  unbelief,  men 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  very  glory  of  God  dis¬ 
covered  in  the  Son,  when  they  pursued  their  own 
pleasures  and  interests  unmoved,  the  woe  of  a 
further  and  final  separation  fell  on  them.  When 
by  every  trick  and  seeming  argument  they  tried 
to  justify  the  unbelief  that  was  founded  on 
confirmed  hostility  to  good — Christ  said,  to  para¬ 
phrase  His  words  (Matt.  xvi.  4),  You  want  a 
sign,  you  will  never  get  any  other  but  the  sign  of 
Jonah,  for  God  will  not  satisfy  those  who  have 
played  false  with  moral  conviction.  You  will  see 
the  Son  of  God  crucified,  dead,  buried,  at  your 
hands,  and  raised  by  the  power  of  God,  and  will 
know  yourselves  gone  out  into  the  final  apostacy. 

(A.)  Illustrations  from  St.  John’s  Gospel.  Hav¬ 
ing  by  no  means  exhausted,  but  fairly  stated,  the 
view  of  Christ’s  immediate  aim  given  in  the 
Synoptics,  I  advance  to  pursue  the  same  inquiry 
in  the  Gospel  according  to  John. 

One  is  glad  to  find  that  there  are  significant 
signs  of  a  return,  on  the  part  of  recent  scholars,  to 
stricter  views  of  the  historicity  and  the  authorship 
of  the  fourth  Gospel.  The  Johannine  problem,  as 
it  has  been  agitated  for  more  than  half-a-century, 
has  never  been  a  vital  problem  for  me.  I  can 


198  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


understand  how  approaching  the  subject  from 
the  literary  or  theological  points  of  view,  men 
should  have  been  struck  with  the  very  different 
compasses  of  the  Synoptics  on  the  one  hand,  and 
John  on  the  other.  With  whatever  exceptional 
elements,  the  centre  of  the  Synoptics  is  Palestine, 
and  we  have  the  story  of  Christ’s  earthly  mani¬ 
festation.  With  whatever  fragments  of  human 
history,  the  centre  of  St.  John  is  in  the  first  verse, 
u  the  word  was  with  God  and  the  word  was  God” 
conjoined  with  that  other  “and  the  word  was 
made  flesh.” 

Now  if  we  but  calmly  think  of  the  matter,  it  is 
the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  make  the  Syn¬ 
optics  the  standard,  and  by  how  much  John’s 
Gospel  differs,  treat  it  as  wrought  up  with  fancies, 
or  corrupted  by  speculation  on  the  facts.  And  we 
know  how  much  of  the  reasoning  has  gone  on  that 
superficial  assumption.  And  difficulties  about 
authorship  have  risen  largely — I  do  not  say  ex¬ 
clusively, — from  the  same  thought,  that  we  have 
superimpositions  of  some  sort  on  the  original 
tradition,  which  must  have  lain  within  Synoptic 
lines,  or  cruder  limits  still. 

Now  manifestly  this  is  “tendency”  criticism, 
which  is  bent  on  reducing  to  the  lowest  limits  the 
phenomena  presented  in  the  Gospels,  either  with 
a  hostile  intent,  or  with  a  friendly  intent,  to 
lessen  what  many  regard  as  the  difficulties  of  faith. 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


1 99 


But  if  we  have  accepted  Christ’s  testimony  regard¬ 
ing  Himself,  and  have  met  Him  frankly  on  His 
own  spiritual  level,  where  the  supernatural  is 
evidenced  to  us  in  the  depths  of  our  spiritual 
experience,  we  have  no  concern  to  lower  and 
minimize  the  facts.  We  rather  desire  to  exhaust 
their  full  content.  A  revelation  introducing  us 
into  a  new  world  of  being  must  have  exceptional 
elements,  not  to  be  explained  by  natural  and 
ordinary  analogies,  in  its  historic  foundations.  We 
must  deal  with  the  facts  as  they  lie  before  us, 
taking  the  light  they  bring,  and  only  explaining 
them  away  or  modifying  them,  when  we  are 
baffled  in  the  attempt  to  take  a  consistent  and 
reasonable  meaning  out  of  the  facts  as  they  lie. 
The  reign  of  extreme  theories  must  sooner  or 
later  come  to  an  end,  through  exhaustion  of  con¬ 
flicting  suppositions,  and  then  the  facts  in  their 
setting  of  creative  circumstances  will  be  suffered 
to  tell  their  own  tale. 

Suppose  that  we  look  at  this  problem  strictly 
from  within,  that  is  from  the  central  aim  animating 
Christ,  on  the  one  hand  in  the  Synoptics,  on  the 
other  in  John.  This  is  what  all  the  Gospels  set 
out  to  give  us,  the  inner  consciousness  of  Jesus 
calling  men  to  faith.  Now  in  the  portraiture  of 
Christ  as  the  anointed  of  God  and  Saviour  of  man, 
the  Synoptics  and  John  are  one.  At  least  the 
note  of  personality  is  identical.  His  consciousness 


200  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


of  the  Father,  and  His  practical  aim,  are  the  same 
in  both.  The  later  Gospel  is  fragrant  of  an 
individual  experience,  and  at  many  points  as  vividly 
rooted  in  concrete  external  fact  as  Mark  itself. 
In  all  these  respects  there  is  nothing  to  show  that 
John’s  is  less  the  record  of  an  eye  witness  than 
the  others,  or  that  the  record  has  become  blurred 
and  vague  through  the  distance  of  time.  Wherein 
lies  the  difference  then?  Not  at  all  in  the  free 
play  of  human  fancies  or  ideas  upon  facts,  but  in 
the  falling  of  the  image  of  the  Son  of  God  on  a 
lens  of  greater  compass,  on  a  more  profound  intui¬ 
tive  discernment,  in  the  person  of  John.  Can  one 
read  with  open  mind  the  Gospel  called  by  his 
name,  and  not  remark  these  three  characteristics, 
a  sanctity  which  would  regard  the  substitution  of 
his  dreams  for  verities  as  an  unpardonable  sin,  a 
consciousness  of  possessing  and  stating  the  central 
facts  as  they  occurred,  and  an  overmastering  feeling 
that  it  is  well  to  be  perfectly  explicit  since  so  much 
hangs  on  the  facts  ? 

True,  these  facts  passed  through  his  singularly 
keen  and  capacious  spirit ;  as  experience  grew, 
they  unfolded  themselves  in  their  magnitude  and 
in  their  inherent  relations  to  man  and  to  God  ;  and 
the  courses  of  the  Church’s  history  in  His  long 
life  would  throw  lights  upon  them.  But  surely  it 
is  one  thing  to  see  the  bearings  of  a  fact,  and  an¬ 
other  thing  to  throw  imaginative  films  round  a  fact. 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


201 


When  Sir  Isaac  Newton  carried  the  principle  dis¬ 
played  in  the  falling  apple  up  into  the  relations  of 
planets,  he  was  only  seeing  more  deeply  into  the 
great  law  exemplified  in  falling  apples  and  rolling 
worlds.  Through  the  Holy  Spirit  John  entered 
into  the  thought  of  Jesus  and  explored  the  full 
content  of  His  self-revelation  in  act  and  word,  so 
that  all  Christ  did,  stood  for  Him  and  for  His 
readers  within  the  larger  scope  of  His  sovereign 
aim.  But  all  that  meant  an  entering  into  fact,  a 
presentation  of  the  facts  in  their  apprehended 
bearing,  in  no  sense  an  addition  of  fancy  to  fact. 

Of  all  this  we  have  a  very  remarkable  example 
in  following  into  the  Gospel  of  John  the  line 
of  study  which  we  have  pursued  through  the 
Synoptics.  We  have  considered  Christ’s  im¬ 
mediate  aim — the  awakening  of  faith,  how  in 
contact  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  He 
sought  to  call  forth  faith,  and  also  how  central  and 
ultimate  that  decision  was.  Now  in  this  as  in  so 
many  other  points,  the  Synoptics,  so  far  from  being 
complete  in  themselves,  drop  us  on  the  edge  of  a 
great  mystery.  Here  is  something  manifestly 
beyond  the  human,  but  beyond  that  plane  what 
does  it  amount  to  in  the  plan  of  God’s  self-revela¬ 
tion  and  in  the  universe  of  created  things.  Facts 
like  these  cannot  simply  be  left  in  the  air,  while 
we  use  them  for  our  private  ends.  Were  John’s 
Gospel  left  out,  there  would  be  an  unbridgeable 


202  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


gap  in  the  New  Testament.  We  could  not  ex¬ 
plain  the  developed  spiritual  consciousness  of  St 
Paul,  nor  the  articulated  system  in  the  great 
Christian  creeds.  John,  in  virtue  of  his  full  vision 
of  the  Christ  in  the  patient  meditation  of  long 
years,  supplies  the  keystone  to  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  Therefore  whoever  wrote  this  book — even 
if  it  could  be  proved  not  to  be  John  the  Apostle — 
it  must  be  held  to  be  the  work  of  an  eye-witness 
and  of  the  one  who  saw  furthest  into  the  Christ. 

But  let  us  turn  to  our  special  point.  To  those 
who  have  sunk  furthest  into  the  message  of  the 
Synoptics,  every  word  in  this  later  Gospel  comes  as 
the  revealed  answer  to  irresistible  queries.  Who 
is  this  who  appeals  to  the  deepest  in  man,  drawing 
out  these  uprisings  to  the  divine  ?  John  advances  on 
the  true  plane  from  the  beginning.  This  is  the  only 
begotten  from  the  bosom  of  the  Father  declaring 
Him.  u  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world”  (John  i.  29).  God  is  moving 
out  in  Him  to  self-revelation.  A  kingdom  is  to 
be  set  up,  into  which  man  can  only  enter  by  the 
quickening  of  the  Spirit.  And  here  lies  the  secret 
of  that  searching  into  the  deeps  of  the  human  soul 
to  which  all  the  Synoptics  bear  witness.  There 
has  come  to  the  world  the  great  judgment  hour  of 
opportunity.  The  shadows  of  the  partial  have 
vanished.  God  in  His  essential  glory  of  love  is 
unveiled  amid  a  world  perishing  by  the  serpent 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


203 


bite  of  sin.  And  the  great  issue  is  raised  for 
every  man  now  that  he  has  seen  the  essential  good, 
will  he  allow  that  Infinite  love  to  deliver  him  from 
the  bondage  of  the  evil  and  lift  him  into  eternal 
life  with  Himself?  (John  iii.  18-21.) 

That  is  the  great  trial  of  universal  man  which 
Christ  brings  in,  an  ethical  trial  which  tests 
the  man  to  his  depths,  which  discovers  what 
the  man  is  as  a  creature,  a  subject  of  right,  a 
personality  made  for  God  ;  and  thus  his  choice  is 
his  self-judgment.  Either  love  has  won  and  despite 
all  the  past  he  is  for  God  and  covered  by  God’s  grace, 
or  he  is  against  God,  discovered  in  His  essential 
glory,  self-condemned  in  the  turpitude  of  his 
rebellion,  with  no  unexhausted  resource  of  Deity 
which  might  lead  to  a  reversal  of  His  judgment, 
committed  to  a  voluntary  choice  of  evil  when  the 
liberty  of  perfect  good  was  within  reach. 

Who  will  say  that  there  is  not  a  unity  in  these 
two  representations,  that  of  the  Synoptics  and  of 
John,  or  that  the  sublime  transcendence  of  the 
latter  over  the  former  is  not  the  further  and  com¬ 
plete  illumination  of  the  great  method  of  Christ 
with  men,  so  vividly  pictured  in  particular  instances 
by  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke — a  crowning  illumina¬ 
tion  which  could  only  have  come  from  Him  who 
inspired  the  whole. 

But  that  is  only  the  first  passage  in  a  great 
demonstration  extending  from  Chapter  iii.  on  to 


204  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Chapter  xi.  in  which,  through  incidents  and 
conversation,  Jesus  discovers  Himself,  on  an  equal 
plane  of  revelation  but  from  many  points  of  view, 
as  an  object  of  faith,  drawing  out  men’s  souls  to 
God  revealed  in  Him.  The  world-vastness  of  the 
issues  He  raises,  and  the  final  character  of  the 
decisions  are  never  left  out  of  view.  In  the  fourth 
chapter,  He  antiquates  the  ceremonial  and  pro¬ 
visional  in  religion  striking  into  the  centre  of  a 
soul’s  real  need,  discovering  God  as  spiritual, 
demanding  a  spiritual  worship,  and  then  presenting 
Himself  as  Messiah  the  anointed  of  God.  Here 
is  a  new  aspect  of  this  great  worldwide  movement, 
a  coming  forth  from  all  shadows  to  the  essential 
reality  of  things,  the  fundamental  relations  between 
God  and  man;  and  Christ  reveals  Himself  the  divine 
messenger  to  accomplish  that  real  fellowship. 

But  with  every  step  the  self-consciousness  of 
Jesus  discovered  in  His  words  grows.  The  era 
of  the  provisional  and  ceremonial,  the  time  pre¬ 
ceding  this  great  judgment  of  opportunity,  was 
marked  by  impotence,  a  wholesale  inability  to  dis¬ 
charge  the  functions,  and  realise  the  ends  of  life. 
In  the  healing  of  the  impotent  man  we  have  a 
typical  illustration  of  the  power  of  retrieval  which 
was  in  Christ.  Jesus  takes  occasion  of  a  heated 
wrangle  about  the  miracle  being  wrought  on  the 
Sabbath,  to  discover  the  plane  on  which  His  power 
was  operative.  He  places  His  working  in  the 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM 


sphere  of  redemption,  with  the  Father’s  working 
in  nature.  But  more,  being  on  a  level  with  the 
Father’s  works,  it  was  done  in  submission  to  the 
Father,  being  the  endeavour  of  the  Son  to  glorify 
the  Father,  and  fulfil  His  design.  And  so  the 
Father  puts  his  honour  on  the  Son,  takes  Him  into 
the  fulness  of  His  counsel,  trusts  Himself  and  His 
purpose  to  the  discretion  and  action  of  the  Son. 
And  then  the  resources  of  Deity  are  with  Him, 
and  the  deliverance  of  man  extends  not  only  to 
physical  weakness  but  to  spiritual  bondage.  u  He 
that  heareth  my  words  and  believeth  on  Him  that 
sent  me  hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not  come 
into  condemnation  ;  but  is  passed  from  death  unto 
life.”  (John  v.  24.) 

How  at  every  step  the  issues  are  broadening 
and  heightening  and  deepening.  Christ  is  not 
only  the  fellow  and  equal  of  God  bringing  in  this 
crisis  of  opportunity,  able  to  deliver  all  who  trust 
in  Him  from  impotence,  He  himself  is  the  food  of 
the  soul  apart  from  which  they  have  no  life  in 
them,  choosing  whom  they  have  eternal  life. 
(John  vi.)  As  He  mounts  in  the  magnificence  of 
His  self-assertion  and  in  His  appeal  to  faith,  doubts 
and  questionings  arise.  The  Spirit  of  controversy 
burns  fiercer.  Our  own  interest  may  indeed  flag 
in  the  sustained  and  painful  conflict.  Our  Lord, 
however,  is  presenting  Himself  as  an  object  to 
faith.  Even  if  He  be  met  not  merely  by  unre- 


20 6  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


ceptive  spirits  but  by  perverse  and  unscrupulous 
opposition,  He  will  set  forth  His  claims  to  be  a 
world  Saviour,  in  whom  all  mankind  might  find 
satisfaction  and  rest. 

After  having  weighed  the  great  self-arrogations 
just  past,  the  reader  is  caught  up  into  the  rhythm 
of  an  ever  expanding  theme.  In  this  crisis  of 
opportunity  which  Christ  has  opened  for  all  men, 
not  only  is  He  the  Messiah  bringing  them  into 
spiritual  fellowship  with  God,  the  Healer  of  all 
impotence,  the  Bread  of  Life.  He  is  the  Fountain 
of  refreshment,  the  Spring  of  a  perennial  and 
boundless  energy.  u  If  any  man  thirst  let  him  come 
unto  Me  and  drink.  He  that  believeth  on  Me 
— out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  water.” 
(John  vii.  37,  38.)  Again,  He  is  the  light  of  the 
world,  uhe  that  followeth  Me  shall  not  walk  in 
darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of  life.”  (John 
viii.  12.)  He  brings  in  the  clue  to  existence,  the 
moral  and  spiritual  solution  to  the  whole  mystery  of 
the  present.  Still  further  as  regards  the  sheepfold, 
the  body  of  His  own  whom  God  has  called  out  of 
the  world — first  the  theocratic  nation,  and  then 
the  New  Testament  Kingdom  of  the  Redeemed, 
Christ  is  at  once  the  door,  and  the  Shepherd  who 
safeguards  every  interest  of  the  sheep  with  His 
own  life.  (John  x.  1,9,  15.)  And  then  crowning 
with  completeness  His  self-revelation  as  a  Saviour, 
Jesus  said  to  Martha,  UI  am  the  resurrection  and 


CHRIST’S  IMMEDIATE  AIM  207 


the  life :  He  that  believeth  on  me,  though  He 
was  dead  yet  shall  He  live,  and  whosoever  liveth 
and  believeth  in  Me  shall  never  die.  (John  xi. 
25, 26.) 

Only  those  who  are  standing  wholly  outside  the 
scheme  of  Christian  thought  as  interpreted  by 
Christian  life,  could  for  a  moment  regard  this  as 
imagination — theosophic  dreams — the  symbolic 
language  of  a  speculative  philosophy.  With  all 
their  overwhelming  vastness  of  import,  these  are 
claims  made  by  Christ  on  the  faith  and  submission 
of  His  followers,  made  as  directly  as  the  claims 
simpler  in  form  made  by  the  other  evangelists,  and 
really  one  with  them  in  spirit  and  aim.  As  such 
they  have  been  regarded  by  the  living  Church  of 
Christ  in  all  ages,  who  have  felt  the  unity  of  the 
whole  presentation,  and  have  yielded  to  Christ’s 
vastest  claims  as  to  the  simpler,  the  faith  of 
their  hearts,  the  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  of 
their  lives. 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INDIVIDUAL 

INQUIRERS 


} 


VIII 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INDIVIDUAL 

INQUIRERS 

There  is  a  saying  reported  of  Dr  Chalmers  to 
this  effect.  Most  men  are  prone  to  exaggerate 
their  talent  and  depreciate  their  influence.  This 
saying  is  of  importance  in  relation  to  that  particular 
branch  of  our  subject  to  which  we  have  now 
come.  All  the  courses  of  our  preparation  for 
our  ministry  lead  us  (and  not  unduly  as  respects 
one  side  of  our  work)  to  attach  supreme  import¬ 
ance  to  intellectual  endowment,  and  to  a  full 
equipment  of  knowledge  at  command  of  a  trained 
intelligence.  Indeed  the  view  we  have  given  of 
the  continuity  of  the  Christian  Church — that  we 
are  standing  in  the  stream  of  a  continuous  develop¬ 
ment  gathering  up  into  our  testimony  of  to-day 
the  fruitage  and  findings  of  all  the  past,  points 
to  an  even  more  thorough  discipline  and  complete 
equipment  than  has  as  yet  been  provided. 

But  there  is  another  side.  If  ministers  should 
be  wise  with  the  garnered  experience  of  the  ages, 
they  are  first  and  chief  to  be  consecrated  and 


XIX 


2i2  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


forceful  personalities  in  living  contact  with  this 
actual  time,  recipients  of  present  grace  for  present 
needs,  in  sympathy  with  their  fellows,  conversant 
with  their  thoughts,  problems,  difficulties,  under¬ 
standing  them,  and  capable  of  turning  all  to  the 
illumination  of  their  master-relation  to  God,  and 
to  the  enforcement  of  the  immediate  duty  of 
reconciliation  with  Him.  We  are  on  the  fighting 
edge  of  the  Kingdom,  and  if  the  Church  is  not 
to  go  back  she  must  advance  through  our  testimony 
and  influence. 

And  so  we  need  men — not  only  of  intelligence, 
of  adequate  knowledge,  of  disciplined  faculty  in 
a  theological  direction.  We  need  strong  person¬ 
alities  conversant  with  their  fellows,  full  of 
initiative,  magnetic  because  consumed  with  a  great 
ideal,  sagacious  because  instinct  with  divine 
guiding,  bright  and  winning,  to  whom  human 
souls  will  naturally  draw  as  helpers  and  friends. 
We  are  defectively  equipped  for  our  particular 
task,  unless  our  preparations  of  knowledge  and 
intellectual  attainment  are  crowned  with  these 
more  masterful  qualities,  making  for  practical 
success.  To  take  an  analogous  instance,  in 
preparation  for  public  life  a  man  may  have  made 
the  most  elaborate  study  of  civic,  national,  and 
international  politics.  But  what  is  the  use  of 
them,  if  he  cannot  apply  these  studies  to  frame 
a  national  policy  on  some  particular  point,  or 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  213 

drive  home  upon  the  popular  heart  the  principles 
of  that  policy,  or  at  least  win  an  election  and 
increase  the  party  strength.  The  world,  wise  in 
their  generation,  count  him  a  gilded  failure. 
And  whether,  at  this  student  stage,  we  are  fully 
impressed  with  the  fact  or  not — whatever  side- 
ideals  may  be  shining  with  seducing  lustre  to 
divert  our  sympathies  and  endeavours — by  the 
standard  of  practical  and  useful  achievement  for 
the  Church  of  God  we  shall  be  judged. 

From  the  view  which  we  have  taken  of  our 
ministry  as  discovered  in  the  example  and  teaching 
of  our  Lord,  this  fact  comes  out  with  solitary 
prominence  that  it  is  a  dealing  with  individuals — 
the  personal  impress  of  His  character  and  message 
on  individual  minds  and  hearts.  Even  in  public 
discourse  His  ministry  largely  assumed  that 
character,  but  over  and  above  that,  personal 
dealing  with  individuals  occupied  to  quite  an 
extraordinary  extent  His  time  and  energies. 
Now  with  many  preachers  this  is  not  very  palat¬ 
able  teaching.  We  naturally  prefer  the  wide- 
sweeping  influence  of  popular  impression,  the  large 
successes  of  intellectual  demonstration.  But,  in 
yielding  to  this  preference  we  are  leaving  out 
what  has  been  a  distinct  method  of  spiritual 
aggression,  an  accompaniment  of  all  seasons  of 
spiritual  progress  from  the  times  of  Christ  to  the 
present  hour. 


2  14  the  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Sometimes  it  is  of  supreme  importance  to  get 
away  from  under  the  shadows  of  our  own  past. 
We  are  all  the  children  of  the  Reformation.  We 
belong  to  the  last  stages  of  an  era  devoted  to  the 
elaboration  of  doctrine  and  the  sharp  accentuation  of 
its  manifold  aspects.  Beyond  question  all  this  had 
to  be  done,  and  has  been  valuable  for  the  enrich¬ 
ment  of  the  Christian  consciousness  and  the  clear 
and  articulate  conception  of  the  Christian  verity. 
And  this  has  given  mould  and  stamp  to  one  form 
of  ministry,  and  to  what  until  recently  were  the 
chief  lines  of  our  activity. 

But  that  was  only  a  special  task  committed  to  a 
particular  age,  and  not  the  fundamental  commission 
of  Christendom.  And  so  while  the  form  or  type 
of  all  our  normal  Church  institutions  belongs  to 
that  Protestant  past,  a  new  spirit  has  for  long  been 
flowing  into  these  old  bottles,  widening  them. 
This  blending  of  old  and  new  in  differing  ratios  is 
characteristic  of  all  Protestant  Christendom.  And 
in  this  attitude  we  are  confronted  by  the  dying 
down  of  old  reverences,  the  relaxation  of  religious 
restraints,  the  rapid  growth  of  militant  secular 
ideals,  and  the  supreme  necessity  of  a  new 
concerted  endeavour  to  recover  the  modern  world 
for  Christ. 

Herein,  if  the  reader  will  permit  the  remark, 
lies  the  importance  of  such  a  course  as  the 
present.  We  are  being  drawn  out  of  the  moorings 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  2 1 5 

of  the  past  to  join  action  in  a  new  conflict  of 
Christ  with  the  world-spirit,  and  so  we  come  back 
from  all  subordinate  standpoints,  to  sit  at  the  feet 
of  Christ  Himself,  to  learn  from  his  own  lips  the 
fundamental  aim  of  the  Kingdom,  and  the  type  of 
service  by  which  it  should  be  achieved.  And  at 
this  point  we  are  considering  one  aspect  of  this 
service,  His  dealing  with  individuals. 

Note  then  the  whole  habit  of  life  which  fitted 
Christ  to  come  in  a  peculiar  degree  into  living 
contact  with  men.  Here  of  course  we  are  studying 
an  ideal  to  which  we  may  be  enabled  only  pro¬ 
gressively  to  conform.  Our  modern  manner  of 
life,  and  indeed  the  constitution  of  modern  society, 
remove  us  to  an  immense  distance  from  the  kind 
of  life  which  Christ  lived  among  men.  Still  the 
great  thing  is  to  have  the  ideal  before  us.  Let  us 
with  all  honesty  of  soul  seek  in  divine  strength 
to  conform  in  spirit  to  that,  and  God  will  open  our 
way. 

First  of  all  let  us  note  His  accessibility.  By 
living  on  the  lowest  level  He  stood  open  to  all. 
There  was  no  one  who  did  not  feel  free  to  come 
to  Him,  while  His  inherent  nobility  made  Him  the 
equal  of  all.  We  have  been  taught  in  an  opposite 
school,  namely  that  influence  comes  from  position, 
rank,  wealth.  And  it  is  undeniable  that  to  a 
large  extent  that  is  the  case,  with  the  propertied 
and  money-making  classes  of  the  community.  But 


2 1 6  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


on  the  other  hand  it  is  true  and  growing  truer 
every  day,  as  the  great  masses  rise  into  power, 
that  position  limits,  rank  sequesters,  and  even 
wealth  isolates  from  the  toiling  millions  of  man¬ 
kind.  If  Christianity  would  strike  into,  and  find 
its  stronghold  among  the  great  masses,  not  only 
of  civilised  countries  but  of  the  world,  it  is  another 
kind  of  influence — the  sheer  elemental  force  of 
personality  winning  supremacy  in  the  lack  and 
even  scorn  of  material  advantages,  that  will  speak 
to  and  win  the  common  heart  of  the  race.  There 
is  j  ust  one  man  in  Europe  to-day  that  has  won  the 
confidence  and  devotion  of  the  common  people  of 
an  Empire,  Father  John  of  Cronstadt.  The  people 
crowd  him  in  the  street,  whenever  he  appears. 
Once  I  spent  a  day  waiting  for  my  steamer  in  the 
harbour  of  that  town,  and  he  was  on  the  lips  of 
every  sailor  to  whom  I  spoke  as  I  fear  no  living 
man  you  could  name  is  on  the  lips  of  our  toilers. 
He  has  entered  into  the  secret  of  Christ’s  holy 
poverty,  and  the  money  which  he  receives  passes 
into  the  hands  of  all  the  sons  of  want.  He  is  no 
demagogue,  but  a  solitary,  a  mystic,  who  lives  with 
God,  and  whose  whole  being  has  been  fertilised 
by  that  communion.  If  we  do  not  in  our  inmost 
hearts  value  such  a  hold  on  the  masses  of  men  to 
lead  them  unto  God,  and  such  confidence  on  their 
part  in  our  being  the  voice  of  God  to  them,  above 
all  personal  rank  or  position  or  fame,  if  we  would 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  217 

not  give  up  all,  to  win  the  dumb  heart  of  common 
men  to  receive  the  grace  of  God  at  our  lips,  we 
are  not  worthy  to  be  ministers  to  Christ. 

Then  joined  with  His  accessibility,  and  indeed 
forming  a  large  element  in  it,  was  His  sympathy. 
He  did  not  theorise,  or  argue,  or  merely  prophesy 
about  millenniums  to  come,  but  translated  His  vision 
of  the  Father,  and  of  His  willingness  to  receive  them 
into  eternal  life,  into  a  ministry  of  present  help 
and  succour.  He  made  them  feel  that  God  cared 
for  them,  that  the  arm  of  omnipotence  was  not  too 
much  to  stretch  out  on  their  behalf,  that  the  evils 
of  life  were  not  irremovable  but  could  flee  at  the 
voice  of  holy  love,  that  force  and  wrong  and  all 
the  disintegrations  of  an  evil  condition  of  things 
were  not  paramount,  that  something  else  was  para¬ 
mount  which  the  feeblest  faith  could  draw  down. 
He  convinced  them  that  there  was  a  spiritual 
universe,  and  a  supreme  Father  to  whom  every 
human  soul  stood  related,  above  and  despite  the 
forces  and  accidents  of  the  world,  and  time.  He 
did  not  carry  these  into  their  minds  by  reasoning, 
but  into  the  core  of  their  lives  by  the  transfiguring 
joy  of  deliverance.  He  made  the  heart  of  Israel 
rebound  with  the  wonder  of  love  and  joy  and 
power,  come  to  them  from  the  unseen.  They 
could  not  contain  themselves.  They  ran  from 
place  to  place.  They  sent  the  fiery  cross,  not  of 
war  but  of  peace,  round  wide  regions. 


21 8  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


How  we  are  to  translate  into  irresistible  fact, 
the  wonder  of  a  supreme  love,  and  bring  it  right 
into  the  heart  of  the  common  life  of  man  to  stir 
a  like  wonder  and  joy,  we  may  not  at  present  see. 
But  if  we  are  His  willing  instruments  God  will 
show.  In  the  wide  field  of  missions,  through 
hundreds  of  medical  missionaries  a  somewhat 
similar  influence  has  been  produced,  of  a  depth 
and  intensity  which  our  obtuse  western  self- 
sufficiency  is  slow  to  perceive.  Once  at  Banias 
near  the  Springs  of  Jordan,  I  was  startled  into  a 
very  strange  assertion,  by  the  look  which  I  saw  in 
the  faces  of  some  sufferers  crowding  round  a 
medical  missionary.  They  had  neither  eye  nor 
interest  for  the  strangers  suddenly  imported  into 
their  midst ;  and  there  was  something  in  their 
glances  and  whole  expression,  which  showed  in 
remarkable  combination  physical  joy  and  spiritual 
awe.  “Look,”  I  said  to  a  friend,  u  that  is  the 
very  gaze  which  greeted  Christ  as  He  went  up 
and  down  this  land.”  But  this  of  healing  is  not 
the  only  avenue  along  which  Divine  love  may 
incarnate  itself  in  deeds.  It  may  take  wholly 
different  directions  from  any  which  we  have  ever 
conceived.  He  who  has  the  key  of  the  human 
soul  is  with  us  if  we  are  with  Him. 

Then  everything  was  in  keeping  with  the 
intense  objective  spirit  of  help.  He  did  not  keep 
them  to  babes’  food.  As  they  were  able  to  bear 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  219 

He  led  them  into  the  heights  and  depths  of  the 
divine  counsel,  leaving  them  awe-struck  and 
amazed.  Yet  how  bright  and  objective  His  teach¬ 
ing,  how  full  of  open  air,  and  the  sights  and 
sounds  and  processes  of  nature.  How  their  daily 
life  lived  before  them  in  His  speech.  I  know  this 
is  a  common  place  of  the  pulpit,  but  even  yet  we 
are  not  adequately  impressed  with  the  extent  to 
which  in  the  speech  of  Christ 

Earth  by  heaven  and  heaven  by  changeful  earth 

(Were)  illustrated  and  mutually  endeared. 

In  one  of  the  finest  essays  of  the  late  Dean 
Church  he  so  collects  and  groups  the  poetic  figures 
of  Dante  that  we  realise  how  the  life  of  his  Italy 
blooms  in  that  immortal  poem.  Let  us  take  one 
discourse,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  note  how 
that  profound  utterance  is  iridescent  with  the 
colours  and  forms,  the  stir  and  movement  of  this 
mighty  universe  of  eye  and  ear.  The  types  in 
the  beatitudes  were  close  to  the  surroundings  of 
every  hearer.  He  knew  every  one  of  them  and 
could  cap  them  with  actual  names.  When  Jesus 
spoke  of  savourless  salt  they  had  seen  it  thrown 
out  in  the  highway.  The  city  set  on  an  hill — 
that  was  Safed  gleaming  in  the  light  of  the  setting 
sun.  And  to  summarise,  in  the  recast  of  the  old 
law,  how,  even  to  us  and  how  much  more  to  them, 
are  the  salient  features  of  their  daily  experience 


220  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


etched  into  life,  the  jots  and  tittles  of  the  prosing 
synagogue  reader,  the  judgment  and  the  council 
where  petty  and  graver  offences  were  tried,  the 
Jew  going  to  offer  his  gift  arrested  by  his  angry 
creditor,  hurried  to  the  judge,  delivered  to  the 
jailer,  locked  in  prison;  the  heated  adjurations  of 
the  market  place  with  samples  of  the  favourite 
oaths,  their  sharp  practices,  their  liberal  curses. 
The  whole  passage,  whatever  more  it  may  be,  is  a 
fragment  pulsing  with  life.  This  man  knows 
what  he  is  talking  about,  for  He  has  painted  their 
life  to  the  quick. 

And  when  we  come  to  Chapter  vi.  it  is  like 
turning  to  another  page  of  contemporary  Jerusalem, 
ay,  and  in  less  degree  of  many  other  towns — -the 
synagogue  leaders  proud  and  stiff,  dropping 
their  ostentatious  benevolence  to  win  place  and 
favour,  monopolising  the  synagogue  service, 
standing  by  the  street  corners  to  awe  the  simple 
folk  with  their  prolonged  devotion,  going  about 
all  disfigured  and  miserable  to  heighten  the  im¬ 
pression  of  their  fasts  ;  yet  proud,  greedy,  implac¬ 
able.  Can  you  not  catch  the  atmosphere  of  the 
little  place?  And  yet  beneath  all  the  varnish  of 
religion,  money  is  the  God,  and  copying  his  betters, 
this  man  hides  it  in  his  coffers  or  digs  a  hole  in 
the  floor  or  the  wall ;  the  thief  is  plying  his  trade, 
and  all  sorts  of  evasiveness  are  being  played  off  by 
one  man  against  another, — the  people  serving  God 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  221 

and  mammon,  the  life  consisting  in  the  means  of 
living,  and  the  rank  and  respect  of  each  depending 
on  the  raiment  which  marks  his  position. 

Yet  round  about  those  seething,  close-fisted, 
sanctimonious,  envious  little  boroughs,  which  you 
can  see  in  Christ’s  description,  stretched  the 
beautiful  earth  and  the  simple  life  of  natural 
things.  And  it  was  with  infinite  art  that  to  teach 
the  contrasted  lesson  of  the  inherent  dignity  of 
life  and  simple  trust  in  God,  He  should  bring  in 
what  must  have  seemed  so  lovely  in  that  amplitude 
of  eastern  light,  the  birds  of  the  air,  the  fixed 
conditions  of  natural  life,  which  make  so  foolish 
the  wrangling  and  strife  of  man,  and  the  flower- 
gemmed  pastures  with  the  lilies  in  regal  bloom. 
Chapter  vii.  of  this  great  discourse  is  equally 
picturesque.  It  is  full  of  outer  life,  motes  and 
beams  which  trouble  eastern  eyes,  prowling  dogs, 
unlawful  swine,  scorpions,  bridle  paths,  thistles 
and  thorns  compared  with  fruit  trees — vines  and 
figs — cultivated  with  such  care,  closing  with  the 
great  scene  of  the  houses  on  the  rock  and  the 
sand. 

In  form  as  in  substance  how  close  Christ  got  to 
the  common  heart,  yet  He  was  at  an  infinite  re¬ 
move  from  the  arts  of  the  demagogue,  who  for 
his  private  ends  plays  on  the  weakness  and 
credulity  of  simple  folk.  While  He  so  toiled  for 
them  He  held  himself  aloof  as  a  star  in  the  quiet 


22  2  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


of  His  communion  with  God.  He  spent  long 
nights  in  prayer.  He  went  from  their  clamouring 
multitudes  when  because  of  physical  excitement 
higher  ends  were  no  longer  to  be  served.  He 
pierced  them  with  rebuke  bringing  out  their 
trivial  motives.  He  remained  in  His  simple  poverty 
incorruptible,  and  continually  evaded  every  effort 
to  make  Him  King. 

This  is  an  ideal  ineffably  far  above  what  any  of 
us  can  attain.  Yet  in  its  rebuking  and  humbling 
splendour  let  the  great  example  shine  on  our  view. 
And  we  shall  be  delivered  from  the  errors  which 
are  making  strong  personalities  mere  negative 
quantities,  and  learn  something  of  Christ’s  power 
to  touch,  and  win,  and  by  God’s  grace  transfigure 
men. 

Further  note  the  effect  of  this  in  our  Lord’s 
actual  intercourse  with  the  poor.  Every  wounded 
and  broken  soul  flocked  to  Him,  the  possessed, 
the  epileptic,  sufferers  of  all  kinds  and  in  all 
degrees.  This  was  His  crown.  He  woke  faith 
in  an  infinite  good  among  the  crushed  and  broken 
of  mankind.  There  is  our  failure,  that  we  are 
not  thrilling  all  the  haunts  of  misery  with  the 
same  consciousness.  We  are  too  staid  and  respect¬ 
able,  standing  aloof  from  them ;  or,  like  all  weak 
creatures,  they  learn  cunning  and  play  upon  our 
softness  to  their  own  degradation.  We  do  not 
as  did  our  Lord  breathe  such  an  overcoming  sense 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  223 

of  goodness  and  God,  that  lifted  above  their  base¬ 
ness,  they  come  crying,  for  help  it  is  true,  but 
for  a  glimpse  of  the  Father’s  face  and  for  a  life 
in  which  all  true  help  lies. 

But  besides  these,  what  a  power  He  had  over 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  strong-handed 
toilers  like  Peter  and  John,  members  of  the  San¬ 
hedrin  like  Nicodemus,  despised  publicans  like 
Matthew  and  Zacchaeus,  women  of  high  position 
and  poor  outcasts,  old  Pharisees  like  Simon,  and 
the  rich  young  ruler,  shrewd  lawyers  like  him  who 
was  not  far  from  the  kingdom,  the  centurion,  the 
courtier  of  Herod,  the  half-heathen  Syro-Pheni- 
cian  and  rulers  of  the  Synagogue  from  the  inmost 
shrine  of  Jewish  orthodoxy,  the  malefactor  on  the 
cross  and  Pilate  in  his  Praetorium. 

Now  in  a  sense  this  is  being  accomplished  to¬ 
day  by  the  widely  diffused  influence  of  believing 
members.  Perhaps  there  is  no  one,  among  all 
who  are  indifferent  or  opposed  to  Christianity  in 
Britain,  who  has  not  been  in  contact  with  some 
living  soul.  But  surely  it  is  a  question  for  us 
why  has  our  religion  so  largely  lost  its  magnetic 
and  expansive  quality?  Why  is  it  not  as  natural 
for  us  to  go  out  on  a  campaign  of  witness,  as  for 
those  Celtic  missionaries  who  evangelised  large 
regions  of  Europe,  or  for  Columba  and  Aidan  who 
spoke  to  prince  and  peasant  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  or  for  the  Lollards  or  for  Francis  and  his 


224  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


followers,  or  for  Wesley  and  his  preachers,  or  for 
even  our  reserved  evangelical  fathers,  through  all 
the  dark  moderate  days. 

This  is  the  central  abiding  work  of  the  Church, 
and  when  she  has  lost  that  certitude  of  faith,  and 
joy  of  experience  which  makes  such  personal 
witnessing  inevitable  as  breathing,  bold  and  un¬ 
compromising  in  the  intensity  of  the  longing  for 
the  good  of  men,  irresistible  through  the  indwelling 
spirit,  knowing  no  distinctions  of  class  and  kind 
in  its  endeavour,  she  is  already  on  the  downward 
path.  Of  course  I  do  not  refer  to  the  mechanical 
buttonholing  of  men  and  pushing  one  personal 
question,  but  such  a  buoyancy  of  the  redeemed 
consciousness,  such  a  sense  of  having  won  the 
clue  to  life  and  the  soul’s  supreme  good,  as  makes 
the  man  electric,  unable  to  withhold  his  testimony 
or  conceal  his  joy.  That  is  worth  infinitely  more 
than  the  finest  demonstration  or  most  persuasive 
discourse.  When  a  man  is  waking  up  to  the 
possession  of  immortal  life,  and  is  trembling  to 
make  the  venture  of  faith,  he  wants  facts  to  go 
on,  and  what  you  have  found  is  of  far  more  value 
to  him  than  what  you  think. 

Now  in  this  we  are  running  counter  to  maxims 
and  opinions  which  found  much  favour  a  genera¬ 
tion  or  more  since.  A  great  deal  was  said  about 
unconscious  influence — certainly  an  important  fact. 
But  it  came  to  this,  that  without  any  overt  con- 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  225 

fession,  men  were  really  to  confess  Christ  by 
letting  their  characters  tell.  With  the  positive 
element  in  that  I  entirely  agree.  An  upright 
master  speaks  by  his  deeds,  a  self-sacrificing 
public  man  by  his  entire  career.  But  where  that 
is  dissociated  from  a  distinct  confession  of  Christ, 
men  may  make  these  out  to  be  a  proof  rather  of 
the  inherent  goodness  of  human  nature,  and  be 
content  with  things  as  they  are.  The  secret  of 
the  middle-class  withdrawal  from  Church  lies  in 
the  diffused  sense,  that  they  have  a  sufficient 
stock  of  moral  ideals  and  attained  standards,  and 
that  they  can  get  on  without  her  ministries. 

And  here  we  touch  the  central  defect  of  that 
whole  habit  of  feeling  and  opinion.  It  was  untrue 
to  what  was  and  is  distinctive  of  the  Christian  faith. 
Christ  did  not  come  simply  to  produce  elevated 
ethical  characters,  but  to  achieve  something,  which 
including  that,  carried  us  a  great  deal  further. 
He  came  to  found  the  Kingdom  of  God,  to  intro¬ 
duce  men  into  the  immediate  fellowship  of  the 
Father,  to  begin  a  life  in  us  from  a  divine  centre 
through  the  inabiding  of  the  Spirit,  so  that  here 
and  now  energies  might  spring  and  a  character  be 
formed,  not  merely  coming  up  to  human  standards, 
but  fitting  one  for  the  fellowship  of  God,  and 
moving  on  to  the  perfection  of  heaven.  Now  a 
confession  of  that — which  is  the  only  characteristic 

Christian  confession,  must  be  accompanied  by  a 

p 


226  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


statement  of  the  fact  that  this  came  to  us  from  be¬ 
yond,  and  has  become  ours  by  the  mediation  of  Christ 
through  His  propitiation,  and  life  in  His  Spirit. 

We  must  teach  to  our  people  the  need  of  this 
fuller  confession  if  we  are  to  achieve  real  and 
durable  results.  And  we  ourselves  must  place 
this  dealing  with  individuals  as  to  their  acceptance 
with  God,  in  the  fore-front  of  our  own  ministry. 
Many  more  than  we  dream  of  are  hungering  for 
light,  and  eager  to  be  led  into  liberty.  And  if 
we  would  approve  ourselves  faithful  ministers  of 
Christ,  we  must  welcome  the  confidence  of  our 
people,  and  seek  preparation  of  heart  and  mind 
that  we  may  be  quick  to  use  every  opportunity. 

And  now  in  what  remains  of  this  lecture  let  us 
show  the  remarkable  skill  of  our  Lord  in  carrying 
out  this  work. 

I.  Note  the  naturalness  of  His  introductions. 
He  is  seeking  to  recover  lives  for  God,  to  lift 
them  into  the  liberty  of  God,  and  so  He  ap¬ 
proaches  them  not  only  with  an  innate  courtesy, 
but  with  a  reverence  for  the  image  of  God  in 
them.  He  touches  what  is  best  in  them,  believ¬ 
ing  that  they  are  eminently  worth  the  winning. 
There  is  no  finer  instance  than  that  of  the 
woman  of  Samaria.  The  way  to  deal  with  all 
outcasts,  is  to  touch  the  fountain  of  their  self- 
respect.  Show  for  them  the  reverence  which  they 
should  feel  for  their  God-given  nature.  He  asks 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  227 

a  favour  from  her.  He,  a  Jew,  speaks  kindly  to 
her,  a  Samaritan  and  an  acknowledged  sinner. 
She  cannot  conceal  her  unbounded  surprise.  Christ 
feels  the  upleap  of  heart  in  the  pleased  wonder  of 
her  deeper  self,  and  meets  it  with  words  of  intense 
yearning  and  marvellous  self-revelation.  u  If  thou 
knewest  the  gift  of  God.”  It  is  impossible  to  un¬ 
fold  all  the  strands  of  meaning  in  those  great 
words,  each  having  its  own  appeal  to  her  being. 
The  consciousness  of  her  ignorance  and  want,  the 
suggested  greatness  of  something  which  He  has  to 
give,  of  a  wonder  about  the  giver,  of  a  boon  from 
the  unseen  which  would  be  infinitely  refreshing, 
and  which  His  every  word  betokened  He  was  so 
willing  to  bestow,  were  all  such  as  to  transfix  her 
with  wonder  and  disarm  her  of  her  natural  reserve 
and  suspicion. 

And  Christ  could  with  equal  power  handle  men. 
Take  that  case  of  Matthew  the  publican,  a  genuine 
kind  of  man  in  a  hated  calling,  and  naturally  keen 
to  scent  reproach,  or  even  patronage,  and  to  stand 
on  the  defensive.  Note  how  Christ  deals  with 
him.  He  does  not  u  dear  brother  ”  him,  or  stoop 
to  him,  or  make  excuse  for,  much  less  rebuke  him. 
He  looks  past  his  circumstances  to  the  elemental 
manhood  that  was  in  him,  and  soul  greeting  soul 
across  all  these  barriers,  He  simply  said,  u  Matthew, 
I  have  a  use  for  you,  come.”  And  Matthew  rose, 
crowned  with  the  crown  of  that  choice  which 


228  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


blotted  out  the  past,  and  in  one  moment  was  knit 
to  Christ  for  ever. 

But  there  is  a  sequel  to  this  story  just  as  signifi¬ 
cant.  There  are  some  sound-hearted  men  who 
can  do  nothing  shabby.  Matthew  had  broken 
with  his  calling  but  he  could  not  turn  his  back  on 
his  old  friends  without  saying,  u  Good-bye.”  And 
so  he  made  a  great  feast.  Let  the  reader  ask 
himself,  if  he  would  have  gone  to  that  feast  ? 
The  company  would  not  have  been  very  savoury — 
ua  great  company  of  publicans”  Luke  says — 
shrewd-eyed,  hard-fisted,  with  tempers  like  modern 
Jewish  usurers,  and  with  a  flavour  of  extortion 
about  them.  Most  of  us  would  have  said,  “you 
should  cut  this  connection  at  once.”  No!  granted 
they  were  publicans,  they  had  been  friends. 
A  man  is  not  absolved  from  being  a  gentleman  by 
becoming  a  Christian.  He  would  go  out  in  the 
open  before  them.  He  would  honour  them  as  old 
friends,  in  the  act  of  telling  them  why  he  went. 
And  he  wanted  his  friends  to  know  his  Lord,  that 
they  might  feel  the  attraction  which  he  had 
experienced.  I  seem  to  know  Matthew  through 
that  act,  and  respect  him  with  all  my  heart.  And 
understanding  his  servant’s  motive,  Christ  went  to 
that  feast  with  a  glad  heart.  There  is  a  phrase  of 
deep  significance  used  by  Christ  in  connection  with 
it,  which  reveals  what  He  felt.  “  Go  ye  and  learn 
what  this  meaneth,  I  will  have  mercy  and  not 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  229 

sacrifice.”  This  was  an  inspiration  of  Matthew’s, 
his  holy  thank-offering  to  God. 

Another  case  was  that  of  Zacchaeus — a  rich 
publican  with  twinges  of  conscience,  who  had  been 
trying  to  restore  the  moral  balance  by  restitution, 
and  who,  still  uneasy  and  dissatisfied,  had  crept 
into  the  sycamore  secretly  to  behold  Him.  The 
danger  of  that  man  was  that  finding  his  sacrifices 
gave  him  no  peace,  he  might  slip  back  into  his 
old  ways.  With  a  subtle  insight  which  goes  far 
beyond  human  discernment,  Christ  calls  him  forth 
before  the  eyes  of  all,  counts  on  his  responding, 
proposes  to  be  his  guest,  recognises  the  struggle, 
notes  the  need  of  instant  decision,  draws  him  out 
of  himself,  hears  of  his  past  endeavours,  hears  in 
them  the  breathing  of  a  heart  which  would  fain 
be  at  rest  with  God,  and  commands  the  faith  of 
his  whole  being  by  telling  him  that  salvation  is 
come  to  his  house  and  that  God  is  at  peace  with 
him. 

Ay,  we  have  to  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of 
men,  think  with  them,  feel  for  them,  interpret 
them  to  themselves,  command  their  assent,  yea, 
sometimes  encourage  their  feeble  faith  by  declaring 
the  forgiveness  of  God.  The  Church  of  Rome 
errs  by  making  mechanical  and  a  requirement,  what 
is  of  great  value  when  souls  are  driven  by  exigency 
to  seek  our  counsel.  Christ  does  give  his  faithful 
servants  great  power  with  troubled  hearts,  clothing 


230  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


for  these  seekers  their  poor  words  with  authority. 
Many  a  minister  has  been  brought  into  circum¬ 
stances  where  these  words  bloomed  with  new 
meaning  u  Whosoever’s  sins  ye  remit,  they  are 
remitted  unto  them,  whosoever  sins  ye  retain,  they 
are  retained.”  (John  xx.  23.) 

II.  But  notice  they  sought  him  out  more  than 
He  sought  them.  We  contrive  all  sorts  of  outside 
attractions,  to  bring  men  to  the  spiritual.  In  Him 
the  spiritual  drew,  in  the  absence  of  all  other 
attractions.  He  distinctly  refused  to  work  miracles 
as  a  vulgar  wonder.  They  were  outflashings  of 
power  to  serve  spiritual  ends,  to  awaken  faith,  and 
draw  men  to  God.  What  thrilled  His  hearers  was 
the  sense  of  measureless  power  in  and  accompany¬ 
ing  His  message.  We  have  seen  in  our  own  day 
the  same  irresistible  attractiveness  without  a  vestige 
of  miracle.  Man  lies  open  to  God  as  the  face  of 
nature  to  the  sun  of  heaven.  And  if  God  begins 
to  work  manifestly  with  elect  servants,  through 
all  incrustations  of  worldliness,  the  abysmal  hunger 
of  man’s  spirit  for  God  will  leap  up.  And  then 
all  other  interests  will  seem  nothing  to  the  spiritual 
interest,  and  nothing  will  be  able  to  keep  back  the 
cry  of  man  after  God. 

III.  He  was  so  one  with  His  mission — swallowed 
up  in  it — that  all  He  was  and  all  that  happened  to 
Him  helped  it  on.  His  life  was  an  evangel.  His 
moveless  calm  and  sweet  serenity,  his  momentary 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  231 

wrath  at  the  polluters  of  God’s  house,  His  passion 
against  wrong,  His  sympathy  with  the  friendless 
and  poor,  His  reserve,  His  distinct  striking  out  of 
His  own  line  despite  taunts  of  wine  bibber,  or 
reproaches  of  irreligion  and  blasphemy,  made  Him 
magnetic  to  every  seeking  soul.  The  added  lustre 
of  holy  intent  which  brightened  under  every 
attack ;  at  times  a  calm  intensity,  a  flame-like 
devotion  burning  through  his  frame,  so  that  his 
friends  would  fain  hold  Him  as  one  beside  Himself, 
a  sense  of  things  unseen  which  gave  sin  an  awful 
enormity,  compelled  the  conviction  that  here  was  a 
man  apart  living  for  one  supreme  end.  He  seemed 
to  trample  on  natural  claims  upon  his  disciples, 
so  bent  was  He  on  one  ministry.  He  thrust  His 
own  homelessness  before  His  auditors  so  that  if 
they  came,  it  would  be  as  men  prepared  for  separa¬ 
tion  and  self  denial.  The  gathering  wrath  of  the 
Jewish  leaders,  the  shadow  of  a  malign  destiny 
which  hung  over  His  head,  the  growing  sublimity 
of  word  and  life  under  the  shadow  of  eclipse, — all 
gave  momentum  to  His  message,  power  for  convic¬ 
tion  to  His  word,  whether  hearers  rejected  it  to 
their  final  apostacy  or  followed  it  to  faith. 

And  if  we  are  to  be  followers  of  Christ  we 
must  be  personally  identified  with  our  mission,  our 
whole  life  bound  up  with  it,  taking  the  risks,  the 
reproach,  the  losses  of  a  fearless  witness,  having 
no  other  end  but  in  self-obliteration  to  glorify  our 


232  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

Lord.  At  no  less  cost  than  that  can  the  kingdom 
of  God  be  built  up.  Mere  professionalism  is 
powerless  and  an  offence.  The  world  will  only 
listen  to  a  man  transfigured  by  his  own  faith. 

IV.  But  now  let  me  show  the  profound  and 
varied  interest  attaching  to  this  work,  from  actual 
instances  in  the  life  of  our  Lord  and  (i)  to  begin 
with  note  how  he  deals  with  Nicodemus.  The 
great  interest  of  this  case  is  that  this  man  is  from 
the  heart  of  that  Jewish  world,  from  the  inmost 
shrine  of  that  ruling  party  which  rejected  Him. 
He  is  a  man  of  his  age,  limited  by  the  average 
standard  of  belief,  and  the  general  intellectual  view 
of  his  time.  There  is  one  difference,  while  in¬ 
capable  of  rising  above  his  environment,  he  was 
honest  and  kept  his  soul  open  to  light.  Such  men 
are  always  in  a  small  minority.  The  number  who 
are  closed  to  evidence,  against  their  party  interest  or 
the  opinion  of  their  school,  is  always  large.  He 
is  no  idealist  or  wild  theorist,  but  sober  and  matter 
of  fact.  The  teaching  impressed  him,  but  it  was 
the  divine  wonders  accompanying  the  teaching, 
which  to  him  gave  it  constraining  authority.  He 
was  simply  yielding  to  evidence.  He  had  not  so 
much  developed  affinity  with  Christ’s  message, 
but  bowed  to  Him  as  an  evident  messenger  of 
God. 

Christ  accepts  what  a  man  is  prepared  to 
concede.  He  uses  the  authority  which  he  allows. 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  233 

Reason  had  brought  Nicodemus  thus  far,  but 
reasoning  could  not  complete  his  cure.  Neither 
to  the  Jew  nor  to  the  Christian  was  religion 
something  which  man  could  work  out  from 
reason ;  but  a  counsel  of  God  communicated  to 
men.  And  Christ  gave  Him  that  counsel  in  its 
most  uncompromising  form.  “  Except  a  man  be 
born  again  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of  God.” 
(John  iii.  3.)  The  man  is  reduced  to  sheer  stupor. 
He  gropes  about  among  the  most  foolish  sup¬ 
positions  unable  to  find  a  clue.  But  Jesus  only 
reaffirms  his  statement  in  a  more  extended  form. 

Was  that  kind  or  fair  to  this  worthy  seeker? 
Do  not  let  us  be  led  away  by  appearances.  A 
Christian  teacher  does  not  go  far  in  wrestling 
with  the  worser  part  of  a  man,  to  set  free  buried 
and  overborne  capacities  for  God,  before  he 
awakes  to  the  necessity  of  striking  his  hardest 
at  the  fetters  which  bind  him.  What  withholds 
any  of  us  from  God,  is  not  a  pardonable  ignorance 
or  blindness,  but  sin,  the  self-will  of  the  intrusive 
ego  thrusting  in  its  own  mind  instead  of  God’s 
mind.  It  was  his  pharisaic  self-sufficiency  which 
had  hid  the  truth  from  him,  of  which  his  own 
scriptures  were  full — the  impotence  of  man  and 
the  need  of  a  creative  power  from  God.  The 
psalmist  had  cried,  u  Create  in  me  a  clean  heart,  O 
God,  and  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me.”  Jeremiah 
and  Ezekiel  had  both  declared  that  God  was  about 


234  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


to  set  up  a  new  covenant  with  his  people — a 
covenant  of  grace  in  which  he  would  give  a  new 
heart,  a  right  spirit,  take  away  the  stony  heart 
and  uphold  them  in  their  new  life  by  His  free 
spirit.  u  Art  thou  a  master  of  Israel  and  knowest 
not  these  things  ?  ” 

Do  you  not  see  the  masterliness  of  this  method  ? 
The  master  of  the  law  is  thrown  back  on  the  law. 
The  teacher  of  Israel  has  a  new  light  thrown 
upon  his  own  teaching,  Christ’s  message  is 
identified  with  the  accepted  faith  of  his  whole 
life.  And  then  when  the  man  lies  open  to  a 
harmony  of  light  from  past  and  present  which 
he  cannot  reject,  Christ  asserts  his  authority  as 
He  who  has  descended  out  of  heaven  to  tell  of 
heavenly  things — the  great  mercy  of  God  by 
which  all  this  was  to  be  fulfilled. 

If  we  study  that  as  a  method  of  dealing  with  a 
man  in  Nicodemus’s  position,  we  will  be  struck 
with  its  power.  But  what  of  the  success  ?  I 
admit  Nicodemus  did  not  come  right  out,  as  the 
phrase  goes.  That  is  one  of  the  characteristic 
elements  in  the  case.  We  must  learn  to  value 
quiet  victories  like  these.  Some  men  never  act 
on  impulse.  They  must  relate  their  new  dis¬ 
coveries  to  the  thinkings  of  their  lives.  It  was 
not  heroic  of  Nicodemus  to  maintain  a  constrained 
silence  in  the  Sanhedrin.  He  stood  up  against 
injustice,  however,  even  there,  and  drew  down  upon 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  235 

himself  feared  reproach.  And  when  all  the 
disciples  had  fled,  Joseph  and  he  gave  the  silent 
witness  of  respect  for  His  body.  May  God  help 
us  to  be  faithful  for  His  counsel  with  strong  men, 
as  Christ  was,  to  throw  them  back  upon  the  light 
that  is  in  them,  shutting  them  up  to  God  and  His 
Christ.  There  is  a  magnificent  work  for  God  to 
be  done  in  this  very  line  by  those  who  have  the 
courage  and  devotion. 

(2)  Take  another  case  with  remarkable  bearings 
on  the  present,  that  of  the  Rich  Young  Ruler.  It 
is  most  wonderful  how  certain  moral  types  are 
reproduced  amid  manifold  diversities  in  widely 
sundered  ages.  We  shall  have  to  deal  with  just 
such  lives  before  we  have  travelled  far,  and  if 
we  prophesy  smooth  things  to  them,  we  shall  be 
guilty  of  their  blood.  Even  in  spiritual  matters 
we  must  take  account  of  the  physical  basis  of 
life.  Some  men  are  born  well-conditioned,  others 
very  ill-conditioned  for  a  noble  life.  To  some 
naturally,  life  is  a  conflict  of  fierce  opposites.  In 
others  life  flows  smoothly  along,  easily  influenced 
to  what  is  higher,  with  aptitudes  for  the  finer 
aspects  of  conduct  in  study  and  amusement,  that 
under  good  management  throw  the  bias  of  the 
being  in  noble  directions.  Such  was  this  man. 
He  enjoyed  every  advantage,  and  life  was  made 
interesting,  with  studies  and  occupations  which 
cultivated  instead  of  degrading.  Brought  up 


236  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

from  infancy  in  the  school  of  strict  duty,  custom 
and  kindly  authority  scarcely  allowed  him  to  feel 
the  strain.  Religion  to  him  turned  its  fairest  face 
in  the  lives  of  those  whom  he  loved.  His  life 
was  not  only  blameless,  but  bursting  with  pure 
sympathies  and  emotions.  Christ  loved  this 
cultured  flower  of  humanity.  In  most  men,  half 
of  these  outward  signs  would  be  proof  of  their 
oneness  with  God.  But  in  him  they  were  only 
the  fruits  of  training,  which  precede  full  and  final 
decision.  Money  and  position  were  appealing  to 
him.  And  there  was  a  secret  hunger  for  some¬ 
thing  higher,  which  in  his  openness  of  mind  he 
felt  had  not  been  attained. 

This  was  what  led  him  to  Christ.  Jesus  saw 
the  balance  of  his  life,  trembling  between  opposites. 
He  saw  that  he  was  not  very  deeply  concerned, 
existence  being  so  rich  and  full  for  him.  Yet 
he  cannot  deny  the  hunger  which  rises  up  from 
time  to  time.  In  this  mood  he  comes  to  our 
Lord.  There  is  just  the  slightest  touch — not  of 
patronage — but  of  deference  from  above  to  this 
travelling  preacher.  In  His  selfless  love,  Christ 
catches  it  not  to  resent  but  to  fear.  Is  the  good 
really  opened  to  this  soul,  that  sense  of  good 
and  thirst  for  oneness  with  the  good,  which 
reduces  all  else  to  nothing  ?  With  eyes  upon 
him,  Christ  says  u  Why  callest  thou  me  good? 
There  is  only  one  good,  namely  God.  Hast  thou 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  237 

seen  the  glory  of  God  in  me  ?  ”  There  is  no 
recognition  of  the  point  in  these  questions,  no 
sense  of  the  One  who  when  He  comes,  comes  to 
claim  the  whole  life.  Jesus  was  so  touched  by 
His  beauty  that  He  wanted  to  meet  Him  on  that 
high  plane,  wanted  to  hear  him  say  “Yes  Lord, 
he  is  the  alone  good.  I  long  for  Him  but  thou 
hast  revealed  Him  to  me.” 

He  has  found  out  where  the  man  is  not,  now  He 
begins  where  he  is.  Eternal  life,  dost  thou  say? 
Thou  knowest  the  commandments — these  are  steps 
to  that  good.  And  then  he  repeats  them,  confining 
Himself  to  the  duties  of  man  to  man.  The  very 
lowness  of  the  ground  seemed  to  justify  the  youth 
in  asserting  his  merit.  “All  these  have  I  kept 
from  my  youth  up.”  In  a  sense  it  was  perfectly 
true,  and  yet  his  saying  it  at  this  juncture  showed 
he  was  a  Pharisee,  leaning  on  his  merits  and 
aspiring  to  greater.  Still  that  was  not  all,  there 
were  openings  to  higher  light  which  he  had  not 
fully  grasped.  But  the  world  and  his  position  were 
coming  in  between.  He  lacked  the  one  crystalliz¬ 
ing  element,  which  would  have  given  all  the 
elements  unity  and  fixity,  supreme  consecration  to 
an  ideal,  the  choice  of  the  good  as  his  portion, 
come  of  everything  else  what  might. 

With  infinite  insight  Christ  put  the  alternative, 
making  the  strongest  appeal  for  His  soul,  yet 
blinking  nothing.  Wealth  and  position  were 


238  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


influencing  him  far  more  than  he  knew.  We  have 
seen  more  than  one  such  life  go  the  same  road. 
For  lack  of  the  supreme  surrender,  the  most  fine 
gold  of  their  young  promise  became  dim.  “  Sell 
all  thou  hast,  give  to  the  poor,  go  for  the  good, 
God,  eternal  life  at  all  hazards.”  Out  of  that  will 
come  a  new  wealth  which  he  cannot  dream  of  now. 
And  then  the  heart  of  Jesus  let  itself  go,  as  hardly 
again  in  His  public  ministry.  He  felt  the  young 
man’s  attractions  for  himself.  He  knew  that  He 
had  a  strong  hold  on  the  young  man’s  heart,  that 
the  new  thoughts  and  better  aspirations  of  his 
nature  were  associated  with  that  attachment. 
u  Come,  follow  me.”  He  who  had  lived  in  scorn 
of  material  good  besought  him  to  strike  for  the 
highest,  choose  the  sole  good  at  cost  of  all.  Christ 
welcomed  him  to  His  fellowship,  where  he  would 
learn  all.  There  is  the  issue,  fully,  finally,  irrevoc¬ 
ably  raised.  Would  he  follow  the  highest  light  at 
all  costs,  and  accept  Him  whose  words  went  ringing 
home  to  his  deepest  self,  whatever  that  might 
bring.  At  bottom  that  is  the  crisis — the  nature 
of  the  decision  which  saves,  makes  a  man  new, 
daring  to  follow  the  supreme  good  discovered  in 
Christ,  a  something  rising  out  of  the  deeps  of  us 
which  settles  everything.  Of  this  the  boldest 
decider  knows  that  it  is  not  of  him,  not  his  native 
product  this  uprising  of  the  soul.  While  here  is 
paradox,  the  man  who  fails  to  decide  knows  it  is 


CHRIST  DEALING  WITH  INQUIRERS  239 

of  himself.  He  took  the  worse  when  he  might 
have  had  the  best.  u  He  went  away  sorrowful.” 

That  is  the  issue  which  we  have  to  raise,  the 
point  to  which  we  have  to  draw  men  ;  and  there 
are  with  us  behind  the  veil,  agencies  and  elements 
we  cannot  know,  which  as  factors  of  experience 
are  indisputable,  but  which  when  we  put  them 
into  words  and  wrangle  about  them,  are  stumbling 
blocks  and  mysteries. 

Still,  however,  we  have  only  touched  the  fringe 
of  a  great  theme.  Those  brief  tracts  called  the 
Gospels  are  really  immeasurable  in  their  teaching 
and  applications.  When  one  patiently  sinks  into 
them  to  draw  away  their  spiritual  content,  John’s 
hyperbole  of  the  world  not  being  able  to  contain 
the  books  that  might  be  written,  rises  before  the 
mind  with  new  pregnancy  and  force. 


CHRIST  MEETING  QUESTIONERS  AND 

OPPONENTS 


IX 

CHRIST  MEETING  QUESTIONERS  AND 

OPPONENTS 

In  his  book  on  the  Study  of  Religion,1  the  late  Dr 
Janies  Martineau  illustrates  with  beauty  and  power 
what  he  calls  a  fact  of  moral  dynamics,  viz. :  “  that 
unless  acted  on  by  a  higher  nature  we  never  rise.” 
“  All  the  Dynamics  of  character  are  born  of 
inequality  and  lie  asleep  amid  unbroken  equi¬ 
librium.”  And  further  as  to  the  nature  of  this 
influence  exerted  by  the  higher  nature  on  the 
lower  he  adds :  “If  you  are  intimately  thrown  with 
one,  in  whom  you  recognise  a  greater  spirit  than 
your  own,  to  whose  gentle  or  majestic  excellence 
you  go  into  captivity,  his  power  over  you  takes  no 
single  line  of  direction  but  speaks  through  all  the 
dimensions  of  your  nature  ;  it  does  not  set  you 
on  copying  him,  but  bends  you  low  before  the 
Holiest  of  all.”  Thinking  over  these  statements 
we  may  come  to  see  a  glory  in  words  spoken  of 
and  by  Christ,  and  in  outcomes  of  His  ministry, 
that  have  been  causes  to  many  of  misgiving  and 
difficulty. 

1  Dr  Martineau’s  Study  of  Religion ,  pp.  30-33. 

243 


244  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Whatever  else  Christ  has  done,  He  has  most 
effectually  and  for  ever  broken  up  the  moral 
stagnation  of  the  world.  The  supreme  ideal,  He 
has  stirred  the  dry  bones  of  a  corrupt  race.  As 
Simeon  foretold,  u  thoughts  out  of  many  hearts 
have  been  revealed.”  In  the  light  of  an  unrealised 
good,  men  have  been  thrown  back  on  the  pricks 
of  conscious  evil,  and  have  been  forced  to  the 
conviction  that  they  must  make  a  decision  of  some 
sort.  The  issue  thus  raised,  has  been  the  keenest, 
sharpest,  deepest  which  ever  has  been  or  can  be 
raised,  not  about  anything  which  the  man  has  or 
is,  but  about  himself.  And  of  course  where  man 
is  free,  all  sorts  of  attitudes  will  be  taken  up,  all 
degrees  of  hostility,  all  grades  of  conformity.  And 
as  each  man’s  standpoint  is  that  which  he  has 
chosen  for  himself  with  which  to  front  time  and 
eternity,  he  cannot  but  assert  it.  And  more,  his 
choice  colours  all  he  is,  his  aspiration,  his  views  of 
the  present,  his  action.  So  that  he  meets  in 
antagonism,  at  many  points,  men  who  have  chosen 
different  ideals  or  standpoints.  They  cannot  all 
win  ;  some  must  conquer  and  others  go  to  the 
wall.  And  so  what  Christ  said  is  true,  sadly  true 
when  we  think  of  the  resistances  of  adverse  forces 
to  the  ideal,  grandly  true,  when  we  think  of  the 
ceaseless  struggle  of  souls  at  all  cost  up  to  the 
ideal,  u  I  came  to  send  fire  upon  the  earth.” 
(Luke  xii.  49.) 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  245 

But  this  great  truth  goes  further.  By  breaking 
up  the  moral  stagnation  of  the  world,  Christ  has 
stepped  up  to  the  moral  leadership  of  the  world. 
For  all  other  interests  have  subordinated  themselves 
to  this  supreme  issue  as  discovered  by  the  Son  of 
God.  Empires  thrive  or  fail  as  they  approach  or 
recede  from  His  ideal.  All  other  interests  hang 
on  the  supreme  interest  of  right  as  against  self, 
and  on  right  as  interpreted  and  carried  to  an  issue 
by  Christ.  And  so  all  the  controversies  of  time 
tend  to  converge  on  this  conflict  of  moral  issues, 
kept  alive  in  the  world  by  the  magnetism  of  Christ. 
I  came  not  to  send  peace  but  a  sword.  (Matt.  x. 
34.)  With  what  a  magnificent  courage  Christ 
fathers,  and  in  a  certain  sense  takes  responsibility 
for  all  the  consequences  of  this  mission.  So  are 
men  to  be  sorted  out  into  their  moral  and  spiritual 
levels,  to  the  last  grain. 

The  reader  can  hardly  fail  to  be  impressed  by 
such  an  ethical  world-view.  That  vast  field,  how¬ 
ever,  in  its  entirety,  lies  beyond  us  and  our  small 
endeavours.  To  control  these  vast  world-issues  to 
ends  of  His  kingdom  is  part  of  the  task  for  which 
Christ  reigns  as  Mediator,  and  all  power  is  given 
unto  Him  in  heaven  and  earth.  We  cannot 
understand  the  scope  and  compass  of  his  mission, 
as  it  moves  on  through  the  ages,  without  taking  all 
that  into  account. 

We  narrow  ourselves,  however,  to  the  example 


246  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


which  He  has  given  us  in  His  earthly  ministry. 
And  even  here  we  assume  what  we  have  already 
pointed  out  in  contrasting  the  method  of  Jesus  with 
that  of  John.  He  did  not  conduct  a  loud-resound¬ 
ing  moral  reform  with  exposure  of  the  sores  of 
that  time.  He  went  out  after  the  lost  until  He 
found  them.  He  searched  for  open  souls  and 
brought  to  them  immediately  the  blessing  of 
eternal  life.  In  this  sphere  of  the  moral  and 
spiritual,  result  is  immeasurably  more  valuable 
than  impression.  Impression  is  nothing  save  as  a 
means  to  self-decision.  If  maintained  without 
resulting  in  decision,  it  becomes  an  anodyne, 
killing  the  nerve  of  true  spiritual  concern,  kindling 
insincerity  and  spurious  flowerings  of  devotion. 
But  even  self-decision  is  an  inconclusive  thing 
when  compared  with  a  man’s  becoming  the  subject 
of  divine  power.  u  He  shall  baptise  you  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire.”  (Matt.  iii.  2.)  Jesus, 
speaking  in  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  by 
the  power  of  the  Spirit,  went  for  these  positive 
results,  the  actual  building  unit  by  unit  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  sending  out  into  the  world  these 
new  created  centres,  in  contact  with  Father  and 
Son  by  the  Spirit.  In  deep  peace  of  soul  among 
the  quiet  hills  of  Galilee  He  carried  on  that  work. 

Nor  did  Jesus  carry  on  a  propaganda  against 
opinion.  We  feel  in  our  day  that  the  air  is  stifling 
to  anyone  who  is  seeking  to  produce  spiritual 


/ 

QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  247 

conviction  and  lead  on  to  a  personal  decision  for 
Christ.  But  as  we  saw  incidentally  in  the  first 
lecture  it  was  equally  the  case  in  the  time  of 
Christ.  Every  movement  of  thought  seemed  to 
divert  attention  from  the  point  at  which  He  aimed. 
Zealots  plotted  against  foreign  rule,  a  large 
courtier  class  idolised  it;  Sadducees  rationalised, 
Pharisees  were  absorbed  in  ceremonial  externalism. 
Their  religious  aspirations  were  diverted  to  political 
dreams.  Christ  however  went  behind  the  whole, 
neglected  the  whole  save  as  it  crossed  His  path. 
His  mission  was  from  God,  and  He  would  speak 
to  what  was  God-given,  and  inherent  in  man, 
leaning  on  a  power  that  was  divine,  looking  for 
results  that  were  divine.  And  as  preachers  of 
Christ  we  must  in  this  follow  Him. 

While  affirming  this  with  the  utmost  conviction, 
I  remember  that  the  Church  can  only  continue  to 
stand  on  foundations  of  truth.  And  it  is  her 
concern  by  those  specially  gifted  and  called,  to 
vindicate  her  confessional  testimony  at  the  bar  of 
reason  and  human  experience.  But  to  bring  that 
apologetic  spirit  into  public  preaching,  especially 
into  the  aggressive  work  of  the  Church,  is  the 
profoundest  mistake.  To  apologise  is  to  establish 
our  truth  by  reference  to  some  more  central  and 
generally  admitted  truth.  But  there  is  none  such. 
Duty  and  sin  and  renewal  are  facts  of  experience 
as  truly  as  matter,  and  force,  and  laws  of  nature ; 


248  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


more  important  in  themselves,  and  far  more  central 
to  the  human  soul,  as  in  their  essence  more 
generally  recognised  by  men.  And  religion, 
received  as  it  stands,  is  capable  of  a  fuller  vindica¬ 
tion  than  any  scientific  truth.  The  spiritual  has 
more  powerful  resources  than  any  material  ones, 
and  leaning  on  God,  we  must  make  appeal  to 
these.  For  fifty  years  or  more  in  the  middle 
period  of  last  century,  a  strong  apologetic  strain 
crept  into  the  preaching  of  Britain,  but  however 
much  it  comforted  the  faithful,  it  did  not  even 
powerfully  arrest  the  outward  drift,  much  less 
appreciably  extend  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Still,  however,  as  we  go  forward  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  spiritual,  in  the  illumination  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  to  speak  to  that  deepest  part  of 
man  in  which  an  imperishable  witness  of  God  lies, 
we  shall  meet  those  who  are  hindered  from  receiv¬ 
ing  our  message  by  all  sorts  of  difficulties,  worthy 
and  unworthy,  or  who  will  even  shield  themselves 
from  the  force  of  our  appeal,  by  creating  difficulties 
whose  stress  they  do  not  deeply  feel.  The  more 
aggressive  we  are,  the  more  we  enter  into  our 
divine  commission  and  make  bold  to  deal  with  all 
men  for  God,  the  more  frequent  will  be  the 
obstacles  of  this  kind  with  which  we  shall  have 
to  contend.  Now  in  a  matter  of  this  description 
rules  are  of  little  worth.  Human  personality  is 
too  Protean  in  its  manifestations  to  admit  of  all  its 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  249 

eddies  and  confusions  being  classified.  We  can 
only  take  some  characteristic  examples  of  Christ 
and  so  open  them  up  that  the  principle  underlying 
His  actions  is  seen,  in  doing  which  I  believe  we 
shall  get  such  glimpses  of  the  great  law  governing 
his  action,  as  shall  be  a  guide  to  us  more  complete 
than  any  rules,  and  applicable  to  every  instance  of 
questioning  and  opposition. 

If  we  claim  to  come  into  the  centre  of  men’s 
lives  and  deal  with  them  about  their  relation  to 
God  and  their  entrance  into  His  kingdom,  they 
will  challenge  our  authority.  The  strange  thing 
is  that  whenever  preachers  take  this  line,  the  old 
calm  is  broken,  the  slumping  of  them  up  with 
other  teachers  of  opinion  is  at  an  end.  Men  feel 
instinctively  that  there  is  authority  behind  the 
speakers’  words.  They  do  not  dispute  the 
authority,  and  by  an  implication  they  own  an 
authority,  but  simply  discredit  this  particular 
messenger  of  the  authority.  The  unconscious 
discovery  thus  made  of  the  openness  of  the  human 
soul,  beneath  all  self-sophistications,  to  a  call  of 
God,  is  very  striking.  And  if  you  search  the 
history  of  revivals  you  will  find  but  a  repetition 
of  the  same  phenomena.  “  He  hath  a  devil  and 
is  mad,  why  hear  ye  him  ?  ”  (John  x.  20.)  The 
Pharisees  said  unto  him  “Thou  bearest  record  of 
thyself,  thy  record  is  not  true.”  (John  viii.  13.) 
Even  in  pride  of  their  dry-as-dust  learning  they 


250  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


condemned  Him.  u  How  knoweth  this  man  letters 
having  never  learned?”  (John  viii.  15.) 

What  encouragement  we  should  take  from 
these  words  ?  Men  cannot  ignore  this  message. 
There  is  that  within  them  which  bears  involuntary 
witness  to  its  truth.  But  with  this  does  there  not 
come  an  awful  sense  of  responsibility  ?  If  they 
can  break  the  messengers  they  will.  Every  attempt 
on  Christ  to  call  Him  Samaritan,  devil,  or  to 
ascribe  His  power  to  Beelzebub,  only  recoiled  on 
themselves,  because  thus  they  revealed  their  own 
animus  and  outraged  the  popular  conscience, 
which  felt  the  moral  glory  of  Christ.  But  it  may 
be  quite  otherwise  with  us.  By  our  personal 
follies  we  may  annihilate  for  many,  the  power  of 
the  message  which  we  bring.  If  we  are  going 
to  take  up  this  work  for  God,  personal  holiness 
and  self-discipline,  and  separation  from  evil,  are 
of  priceless  value.  The  savour  of  the  preacher’s 
character  has  often  continued  the  vitality  of  his 
message  long  after  he  has  passed  away. 

To  turn  from  this,  however,  what  line  did  Christ 
take  in  opposition  to  such  objections?  He  rung 
home  on  that  aroused  sense  of  authority  which 
we  have  described.  I  want  you  to  notice  the 
exceeding  boldness  of  Christ  in  dealing  with  men. 
He  challenged  the  verdict  of  their  religious  sense 
uMy  doctrine  is  not  mine  but  His  that  sent  me.” 
(John  vii.  16.)  Yea  more  wonderful  than  that,  He 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  251 

puts  the  religious  sense  on  the  same  level  as  the 
moral  sense.  You  can  only  know  the  morally 
right  by  doing  it.  (v.  17.)  And  so  with  the 
spiritually  true.  To  understand  the  spiritual,  to 
distinguish  true  from  false,  you  must  yield  to  the 
light  whencesoever  it  comes,  begin  to  do  what  is 
verified  to  your  soul  as  true.  Now,  says  our  Lord, 
if  you  are  only  willing  to  do  God’s  will,  you  will 
be  led  into  further  light  until  you  can  see  for  your¬ 
self  whether  my  message  comes  from  God  and 
reveals  God,  or  is  some  poor  imitation  of  my  own. 
What  he  demands  of  men  is  to  be  true  to  the 
highest  light  within  them.  And  he  arrogates  for 
His  message  a  voice  as  universal,  a  validity  as 
absolute  for  the  religious  nature,  as  right  for  the 
soul’s  sense  of  right.  Even  as  by  doing  the  right 
we  prove  the  right,  so  let  a  man  become  even 
willing  to  do  the  will  of  God  wherever  seen,  and 
in  Christ’s  word  he  will  come  into  the  full  light  of 
God.  Why,  in  My  whole  bearing  you  may  gather 
that  that  is  so.  If  my  doctrine  were  of  Myself, 
I  would  be  seeking  My  own  glory  as  teacher  and 
prophet.  But  if  I  am  swallowed  up  in  seeking 
His  glory  that  sent  Me,  what  is  the  inference  but 
that  He  indeed  speaks  in  Me?  (John  vii.  14-19.) 

These  are  immeasurably  great  words,  and  we 
have  never  yet  entered  into  them.  The  church  of 
Christ  has  never  fully  stood  on  them,  otherwise 
her  action  would  be  much  more  commanding  than 


25 2  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

it  has  proved  itself  to  be.  The  gospel  is  as  axio¬ 
matic  to  the  religious  consciousness  as  the  moral 
law  to  the  moral  sense.  Inherent  light  is  in  the 
one  as  in  the  other,  to  command  the  free  assent  of 
that  sense  for  God,  which  like  the  moral  sense  is 
an  inalienable  endowment  of  man.  What  utter 
fools  have  we  been  with  our  apologetics,  and 
philosophising,  and  even  our  dockings  and  trim¬ 
mings  of  the  faith,  to  make  it  palatable  to  man. 
And  yet  all  the  time,  if  we  had  only  along  Christ’s 
line  discovered  God,  there  is  that  in  man  deeper 
and  more  imperious  than  any  of  the  surface  con¬ 
siderations  which  we  have  been  invoking,  which 
runs  to  the  divine  as  iron  filings  to  a  magnet. 
The  way  in  which  Christ’s  teaching  immediately 
appeals  to  men  of  all  heathen  nations,  living 
wholly  out  of  our  worlds  of  thought,  is  a  proof  of 
immense  import,  new  to  these  last  generations. 
Reading  the  numerous  narratives  which  exist  of 
even  cannibals  and  savages,  no  less  than  cultured 
Brahmins  and  Buddhists,  rising  to  an  intuitive 
reception  of  and  submission  to  the  mind  of  God 
revealed  in  Christ,  we  have  seen  new  beauty  in 
the  immortal  sentences  of  Plato,  in  which  he 
pictures  the  soul  of  man  wakening  from  the 
corruptions  of  earth  to  recognise  the  supernal 
beauty.  u  Every  soul  of  man  has  in  the  way  of 
nature  beheld  true  being.  Few  only  retain  an 
adequate  reverence.  And  they  when  they  behold 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  253 

any  image  of  that  other  world  are  rapt  in  amaze¬ 
ment.  The  wings  of  the  soul  begin  to  swell  and 
grow — and  the  growth  extends  under  the  whole 
soul,  for  once  the  whole  was  winged.  Wherever 
she  thinks  she  will  behold  the  beautiful  one, 
thither  in  her  desire  she  runs.  And  when  she 
has  seen  him  and  bathed  herself  with  the  waters 
of  desire,  her  constraint  is  loosened  and  she  is 
refreshed  and  has  no  more  pangs  and  pains.”1 
From  the  dim  and  uncertain  standpoint  of  heathen¬ 
ism  what  a  magnificent  description  is  here  given  of 
that  vast  region  of  our  being  immediately  re¬ 
sponsive  to  the  visitation  of  God,  and  rising  as  to 
its  native  air  in  surrender  to  the  call  of  God. 

II.  Let  us  turn  now  to  another  line  of  question¬ 
ing,  the  claim  for  intellectual  certitude.  We  shall 
find  the  best  example  of  this  in  another  passage 
from  John  (chap.  x.  22-30).  Christ  is  in  Jerusalem 
at  the  Feast  of  Dedication  and  has  been  walking 
in  Solomon’s  porch,  when  certain  Jews  came  round 
about  Him  and  directly  laid  on  him  the  blame  of 
their  indecision.  How  long  dost  thou  make  us  to 
doubt  or  hold  us  in  suspense  ?  If  thou  be  the 
Christ  tell  us  plainly.  Here  they  profess  their 
willingness  to  believe,  assert  their  impatience  at 
the  obstacles  put  in  the  way  of  belief,  and  ex¬ 
postulate  with  Christ  for  His  backwardness  in 
satisfying  them.  With  great  skill  too  they  raise 

1  Plato’s  Phaedrus ,  250-252.  Jowett’s  translation. 


254  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


the  fundamental  issue,  is  He  the  Messiah  or  is  He 
not  ?  If  they  are  satisfied  He  is  the  Messiah,  of 
course  they  are  bound  to  bow  to  Him,  if  not,  what¬ 
ever  else  He  may  be  matters  little.  But  further, 
another  sign  of  great  perception,  they  do  not  argue, 
much  less  object.  From  the  categories  of  time 
you  cannot  prove  or  disprove  what  comes  from 
beyond  time.  The  burden  of  self-manifestation 
rests  on  Him.  But  He  must  vindicate  to  reason 
His  entrance  from  a  realm  beyond  rational  experi-. 
ence.  The  manifestation  must  be  so  complete  as 
to  be  indisputable.  “  If  thou  be  the  Christ  tell 
us  plainly.” 

We  may  discern  even  from  this  brief  unfolding, 
how  far-reaching  this  question  is,  and  that  it  brings 
before  us  the  ever  repeated  question  of  the  curious 
intellect — urged  still  in  a  great  variety  of  forms, 
oftentimes  in  much  less  reasonable  terms,  and  ap¬ 
pearing  to  become  ever  more  inevitable  and  inexor¬ 
able,  as  science  is  discovering  the  visible  world 
lying  within  the  realm  of  law.  And  in  the  answer, 
we  have  the  permanent  attitude  and  all  embracing 
reply  of  Christ  and  His  religion  to  that  claim.  We 
might  occupy  large  space  in  pointing  out  the  frequent 
recurrence  throughout  the  ages  of  this  claim,  the 
rising  up  of  spurious  satisfactions  as  in  Gnosticism, 
to  gratify  this  curiosity,  and  then  show  how  the 
living  Church  has  answered  uniformly  along  the 
line  marked  out  by  our  Lord  in  this  passage. 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  255 

In  effect  these  men  demand  a  full  and  clear  —  what 
we  would  call  a  scientific — proof  to  reason  of  the 
Messiahship,  or  more  widely  of  the  divine  origin 
of  the  Christian  religion,  which  would  leave  doubt 
as  impossible  as,  e.g.,  in  the  case  of  the  propositions 
of  Euclid  or  the  Newtonian  Theory.  Tell  us  the 
matter  of  fact,  art  thou  the  Christ  ?  Tell  us  this 
plainly  on  grounds  capable  of  demonstration  to 
every  honest  mind.  At  first  sight  no  demand 
could  appear  more  reasonable.  And  yet  when  you 
come  to  look  at  the  matter  nothing  could  be  more 
unreasonable.  If  Jesus  had  come  to  discover  an 
extension  of  the  material  order  of  the  universe,  of 
new  kingdoms  of  natural  being,  that  would  have 
been  the  only  course  to  take.  But  He  came  to 
make  a  revelation  on  a  higher  plane.  There  are  a 
great  many  kinds  of  truth  of  which  you  cannot 
give  a  formal  intellectual  demonstration.  You 
cannot  give  a  formal  intellectual  demonstration  of 
the  aesthetic  laws  which  govern  artistic  perfection. 
They  have  dawned  on  artistic  natures  in  the 
practice  of  their  arts,  and  they  appeal  immediately 
to  the  cultured  artistic  sense  of  others.  Similarly 
moral  truths  are  the  findings,  by  action  and  experi¬ 
ence,  of  what  is  in  harmony  with  the  moral  sense 
— the  regulative  part  of  man,  and  what  therefore 
secures  individual  and  social  harmony.  Of  course 
since  all  truth  is  one,  aesthetic  truth  and  moral 
laws  have  correspondence  with  the  intellect,  which 


256  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


classifies  the  materials  given  from  that  higher 
level.  But  it  was  by  following  the  laws  character¬ 
istic  of  their  own  fields,  that  they  have  established 
themselves  as  departments  of  real  knowledge, 
having  these  correspondences  with  other  fields. 

Christ  however  came  on  a  plane  of  His  own  as 
we  have  seen  right  through,  to  speak  to  that 
which  was  deepest  and  most  pervasive  in  man. 
He  came  to  reveal  the  supreme  Spirit,  as  life,  and 
lord,  and  portion,  to  human  spirits — more  plainly 
and  nakedly,  a  divine  Will  to  human  wills,  that 
they  might  enter  into  His  larger  life  and  be 
lifted  up  into  liberty.  Now  in  the  very  nature  of 
things  this  kind  of  revelation  must  be  in  the  sphere 
of  the  spiritual — God  so  discovering  Himself  in 
His  Son  that  the  spiritual  rises  up  in  response 
within  the  breast  of  man :  the  Son  casting  so  full- 
orbed  a  reflection  of  the  Deity,  in  perfect  associa¬ 
tion  with  Him,  that  His  being  Messiah,  the 
anointed  of  God,  stands  self-witnessed,  to  every 
awakened  soul.  Such  was  the  plane,  such  was 
the  form  of  the  revelation  which  Christ  came  to 
impart.  None  other  was  possible  in  the  very 
nature  of  things,  for  you  can  only  discover  spiritual 
qualities  to  a  spiritual  nature  drawn  into  certain 
sympathy  therewith.  No  other  revelation  could 
serve  his  spiritual  end,  to  bring  men  to  God. 

To  step  outside  this  His  distinctive  sphere  and 
to  attempt  something  different,  the  establishment 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  257 

of  a  historic  fact  by  a  historic  demonstration,  to 
have  put  in  historic  claims  to  Messiahship,  after 
the  fashion  of  a  claimant  proving  His  title  to  a 
throne,  would  not  have  advanced  but  have  com¬ 
plicated  His  spiritual  mission.  If  He  had  been 
successful  on  that  material  level,  He  would  simply 
have  gathered  round  Himself  all  the  dreamers  and 
zealots  who  longed  for  material  triumph,  through 
a  warlike  Messiah,  over  all  their  foes,  and  so 
defeated  His  divine  intents.  If  there  remained 
room  for  debate,  however  sufficient  the  demonstra¬ 
tion,  instead  of  kindling  a  religious  revival,  He  would 
have  started  a  wordy  war  of  texts  and  their  inter¬ 
pretations.  I  ask  you  then  to  admire  the  wisdom 
of  Christ,  the  originality  and  sufficiency  of  the  line 
which  He  pursued,  freeing  Him  from  all  incidental 
controversies,  carrying  Him  at  once  into  the  heart 
of  His  spiritual  mission,  to  win  not  intellectual 
assent  to  facts  which  might  have  no  value  for  the 
life,  but  the  response  of  the  human  spirit  to  the 
divine,  and  through  this  the  entrance  as  life  and 
power  of  the  divine  to  the  human.  But  beyond 
and  above  this,  I  ask  you  to  note  that  for  the 
intellectual  demonstration  of  facts — outward  historic 
facts — this  was  the  best  way.  When  through  His 
spiritual  revelation  He  had  built  up  His  Kingdom, 
men  could  for  themselves  compare  the  outcome  in 
Christ  with  the  preparation  for  His  coming  in  early 
ages,  and  satisfy  themselves  of  the  reality  of  that 

R 


258  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

in  which  they  had  put  their  trust.  By  the  manifest 
congruity  of  a  divine  purpose  reaching  through 
the  ages  and  culminating  in  Christ,  by  forecasts  in 
types  and  institutions  and  prophecies  manifestly 
beyond  all  vaticination  of  man,  by  the  extraordinary 
and  undreamt  of  fulfilment  in  Christ  beyond  possi¬ 
bility  of  manufacture,  and  by  the  character  and 
formation  of  the  documents  themselves  which  com¬ 
municate  His  character  and  message,  we  have  a 
combination  of  witness  to  the  reality,  character,  and 
claims  of  Christ  without  a  parallel  in  the  world. 

After  this  general  explication  of  Christ’s  stand¬ 
point  derived  from  a  wide  induction  of  His  teachings, 
we  can  see  the  meaning  of  His  reply  in  every  part 
and  in  its  relations.  What  the  Jews  said  was 
quite  true.  Christ  had  not  set  out  to  give  a  com¬ 
plete  demonstration  on  strict  historical  grounds  of 
the  historical  fact  of  His  Messiahship.  And  yet 
Christ  could  say,  UI  told  you  and  ye  believed  not.” 
What  I  worked  for  was  not  to  give  you  intellectual 
certainty  of  facts  outside  you,  but  certitude  within 
you.  I  appealed  to  faith.  I  spoke  to  the  spiritual 
sense  lying  dormant  within  you.  I  wanted  from 
you  not  merely  an  assent  but  an  act,  trust  of  the 
heart,  submission  of  the  life.  And  so  I  did  not 
prove,  I  revealed.  All  I  have  done  has  been  a 
telling  you,  the  discovery  of  Myself,  the  unveiling 
of  My  continual  oneness  with  the  Father.  My 
utterance  of  each  word,  out  from  the  centre  of 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  259 

the  Father’s  holy  will,  in  the  one  effort  to  glorify 
the  Father,  the  circuit  of  My  teaching,  the  end  of 
My  endeavour,  all  with  one  voice  revealed  to  your 
spiritual  being  this  fact,  that  God,  in  the  sent  one 
of  His  own  choosing,  was  knocking  at  the  door  of 
your  heart.  What  was  that  but  witness,  the  only 
witness  worth  having,  that  Messiah  has  indeed 
come  to  summon  you  to  direct  relation  with  God, 
to  new  life  in  Himself. 

Now  let  me  show  My  ground  of  a  righteous 
quarrel  with  you.  You  have  been  putting  the 
blame  of  your  indecision  on  Me,  but  it  lies  on 
yourselves.  If  you  had  yielded  to  that  witness 
borne  to  your  inmost  soul,  if  you  had  come  out 
and  taken  God  at  His  word,  then  in  transfigured 
selves  you  would  have  had  the  proof  of  that 
witness.  But  you  shirked  the  issue,  you  stifled 
that  inner  testimony,  you  did  violence  to  the  con¬ 
victions  of  your  inmost  souls.  In  other  words  you 
showed  your  bias  against  God.  Of  course  you 
are  uneasy,  and  so  now  you  want  to  put  the  blame 
of  your  indecision  upon  Me,  by  asking  Me  to  meet 
you  on  a  plane  of  your  choosing.  You  want 
Me  to  make  a  demonstration  which  will  not  commit 
you,  to  satisfy  your  curiosity  without  bowing  your 
will.  But  I  am  here  so  to  commit  you  by  bringing 
God  and  you  together  in  your  spirit’s  deeps,  that 
you  must  decide  to  have  Him  or  not  to  have  Him, 
and  so  judge  yourselves. 


26o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Not  only  did  I  tell  you  in  this  inner  way, 
but  My  witness  to  your  inmost  being  was  accom¬ 
panied  by  such  signs  of  God’s  working  with  and 
in  Me,  that  no  faculty  of  your  being  could  resist 
the  impression  on  your  spirits.  And  if  you  do 
not  meet  Me  on  that  level,  I  will  never  meet  you 
on  any  other.  What  does  your  rejection  of  that 
witness  point  to,  but  that  you  have  no  desire  to 
get  into  contact  with  the  Father,  have  no  affinity 
with  Him,  are  not  of  My  sheep.  Where  there  is 
such  incongruity  how  can  there  be  understanding  ? 

See  how  knowledge  in  the  spiritual  sphere 
comes,  through  moral  and  spiritual  congruity. 
u  My  sheep  hear  My  voice.”  From  this  comes  union, 
from  this  eternal  life  in  Me,  from  this  fellowship 
with  the  Father,  through  the  indwelling  of  the 
Father’s  life  and  power.  And  so  they  find  out 
not  merely  My  Messiahship,  but  my  oneness  with 
the  Father.  My  dear  fellow-students,  the  Church 
in  all  ages  has  so  far  seen  this  truth,  received  it  in 
part,  but  far  more  often  gone  away  from  and 
contradicted  it  in  practice.  The  time  is  come 
when  she  should  step  out  on  the  line  of  Christ, 
counting  on  the  witness  of  God  in  every  man,  and 
the  resources  of  divine  grace.  When  the  Church 
in  a  mighty  faith  throws  herself  on  these  divine 
supports,  we  shall  see  such  a  work  of  God  among 
all  peoples,  on  all  intellectual  and  social  levels,  as 
the  world  has  never  known. 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  261 

3.  We  shall  now  consider  a  case  of  a  very 
different  type,  such  as  we  might  be  tempted  to 
dismiss  with  a  rebuke,  or  utterly  disregard.  I 
refer  to  that  story  told  in  the  three  synoptic 
gospels,  of  the  woman  with  the  seven  husbands. 
(Matt.  xxii.  23;  Mark  xii.  18;  Luke  xx.  27.) 
Whether  this  be  a  true  story,  or  a  crafty  concoc¬ 
tion  devised  to  serve  as  a  trap,  it  is  the  cunning 
device  of  light-hearted  doubters  who  have  come  to 
be  so  rooted  in  the  present,  that  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  trip  up  credulous  believers  in  the  unseen.  This 
is  a  mood  far  more  common  than  we  dream.  Even 
great  men,  who  have  had  loftier  moods,  have 
indulged  in  coarse  derision  of  the  supernatural, 
as  Carlyle  in  his  taunting  phrases  of  Hebrew  old 
clothes  and  rags  from  Houndsditch ;  Matthew 
Arnold  with  his  three  Lord  Shaftesburys,  and 
Huxley  with  his  challenge  about  the  hospital 
wards,  in  one  of  which  prayer  alone  should  be 
tried,  in  the  other  all  medical  and  surgical  appli¬ 
ances.  We  must  face  the  terrible  fact  that  from 
him  who  hath  not  is  taken  away  even  that  which 
he  hath — the  native  instincts  and  resources  which 
belong  to  him  as  a  man— so  that  God — u  the 
monstrous  hypothesis  of  a  God,”  as  Professor 
Clifford  called  it — and  the  very  possibility  of  a 
historical  revelation  from  Him  seem  the  most 
unbelievable  of  delusions. 

Curiously  enough  preachers  are  apt  to  have  two 


262  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


very  opposite  and  inconsistent  feelings  towards 
this  class,  both  of  them  quite  unjustifiable,  which 
have  this  mournful  effect  that  they  leave  it  severely 
alone.  First  they  put  down  to  mere  self-will,  to 
blatant  love  of  wrong,  what  is  an  effect  even  more 
than  a  cause.  Not  all  at  once  do  men  come  into 
that  position.  Often  lying  deep  below  even  un¬ 
abashed  secularism  and  blood-curdling  blasphemies, 
are  natures  strong  in  moral  aspiration,  and  en¬ 
dowed  with  acute  religious  sensibilities.  But 
life  has  turned  its  rough  edges  to  them,  some 
wrong  or  hypocrisy  has  roused  their  indignation, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  social  revolt  they  have  looked 
with  jaundiced  eyes  at  established  faiths,  and  in 
their  egoism  have  seen  only  the  difficulties  and 
seeming  crudities  of  spiritual  religion.  There 
are  a  thousand  influences  in  the  life  of  to-day  to 
fan  such  a  spirit  into  flame  among  large  sections 
of  the  working  classes,  such  as  the  feeling  that 
they  can  now  retaliate  for  past  injuries,  the  sense 
of  growing  preponderance  in  the  counsels  of  the 
nation  and  controlling  influence  over  industry. 
Their  minds  are  filled  with  the  passion  for  material 
good.  In  the  enjoyment  of  their  enlarged  means 
of  pleasure  and  comfort,  they  are  jealous  of  higher 
restraints.  Material  ideals  of  progress  engross 
their  thought.  They  are  passing  through  a  stage, 
which  they  will  presently  surmount,  when  they 
shall  learn  from  experience  the  limitations  of  all 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  263 

mere  material  good.  With  all  their  love  of  plea¬ 
sure  and  mockery  of  aught  beyond  present  good, 
they  have  not  gone  so  far  away  as  they  think 
from  the  dominion  of  the  supersensual.  Loftier 
ideals  disturb  their  thoughts,  and  break  through 
their  theories.  Great  leaders  of  socialism  like 
Marx  have  sought  to  commit  them  to  an  utterly 
unmoral  theory  of  life — the  right  of  the  stronger; 
— but  even  while  they  have  nothing  better,  they 
are  halting  with  uncertain  foot,  discovering  a 
leaven  of  moral  discernment  which  shows  that 
quite  another  theory  of  life  has  a  powerful  hold 
on  their  hearts.  These  men  are  standing  in  the 
van,  the  future  of  the  world  is  with  them.  If  we 
discerned  the  signs  of  the  time,  we  would  not 
mind  their  denials,  their  audacities  of  undisciplined 
thought,  even  the  vast  incrustation  of  dislike,  and 
suspicion  of  the  Churches,  and  of  religion  itself 
which  has  grown  into  a  sort  of  class  badge  among 
them.  We  would  give  ourselves  to  interpret 
their  mind,  see  with  their  eyes,  get  into  their 
confidence. 

And  then  we  would  find  that  the  other  con¬ 
trasted  feeling  which  holds  us  back  has  no  justi¬ 
fication.  Christian  men  have  often  an  unworthy 
fear  of  bold  and  blatant  denial,  as  if  it  had  an 
armour  which  we  could  not  pierce.  Nothing 
could  be  more  unwarranted.  Get  among  them 
and  you  will  find  how  narrow  their  standpoint  and 


264  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


how  defenceless  they  are  on  every  side.  They 
have  not  sounded  the  depths,  much  less  solved  the 
problems  of  human  experience.  They  are  simply 
squatters  on  the  present,  careless  of  the  gathered 
wisdom  of  the  past,  or  the  vaticinations  of  the 
future,  attempting  to  squeeze  out  of  material  good 
what  it  cannot  furnish,  with  no  clue  to  life’s 
mysteries,  nor  answers  to  the  deepest  yearnings 
of  their  beings. 

Turn  now  to  the  words  of  our  Lord  and  see 
how,  despite  the  chuckling  sense  of  cleverness  in 
those  Sadducees,  He  read  them  like  an  open  book. 
These  were  not  working  men,  but  rich  leading 
citizens  of  Jerusalem.  And  still  their  dry-as-dust 
materialism  has  many  types  in  the  upper  classes 
of  our  land,  seared  aristocrats,  false  cynical 
patricians  of  all  degrees,  pleasure-loving  pluto¬ 
crats,  whose  money  is  their  God.  These  however 
are  rotting  branches  of  the  social  tree,  while  in 
the  classes  we  have  described,  we  have  this  frank 
materialism  conjoined  with  virility,  and  power  to 
make  or  mar  the  coming  age  of  the  world.  What 
line  does  our  Lord  take  ?  A  singularly  bold  one, 
— twice  over  He  says  “Ye  do  err,”  “Ye  do 
greatly  err.”  This  is  sheer  wandering  away  from 
lights  which  might  have  guided  you.  You  think 
that  you  have  trapped  Me,  but  you  have  deceived 
yourselves.  This  comes  from  “not  knowing”  or 
taking  account  of  what  would  occur  to  any 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  265 


reverent  man.  And  so  you  have  dishonoured 
yourselves  in  fancying  there  was  any  worth  in  an 
objection  like  that. 

You  do  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures.  You 
have  shut  out  what  the  best  have  divined  about 
the  past.  You  have  closed  your  eyes  to  the 
highest  movements  of  unseen  powers  on  the  spirit 
of  man.  These  loftier  aspirations  do  not  exist 
for  you,  who  elect  to  confine  yourselves  to  what 
you  see — to  the  pin-point  that  interests  you.  But 
that  is  error,  eccentricity.  You  are  making  your¬ 
selves — and  yourselves  in  a  light  trivial  mood — the 
measure  of  existence.  If  you  begin  by  discounting 
the  veracity  of  the  human  spirit  even  in  its 
furthest  findings,  you  are  cutting  away  the  ground 
of  human  knowledge,  for  you  are  discrediting 
your  own.  By  all  means  examine,  prove  whether 
any  particular  beliefs  have  validity,  but  do  not 
dismiss  them  to  begin  with  because  they  do  not 
chime  in  with  your  likings.  Do  not  find  a  joy 
in  belittling  human  aspirations,  and  befouling  by 
light  cavil,  rooted  convictions  of  the  human  soul. 

And  on  what  slight  grounds  you  have  come  to 
this  conclusion !  You  do  not  know  your  own 
scriptures.  They  are  not  the  dead  record  of  a 
stereotyped  past,  but  the  living  word  of  a  living 
God.  If  you  listened  to  their  voice  you  would 
see  that  behind  the  Word  there  is  divine  Power 
moving  on  to  the  fulfilment  of  a  great  moral 


266  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


purpose,  passing  from  stage  to  stage  of  revelation, 
reaching  out  to  a  final  fulfilment.  We  find  such 
a  movement  pervading  the  past,  but  the  same 
movement  goes  on  into  the  future.  Many  things 
in  the  present  are  accidents  which  will  be  dropped 
out  in  the  issues.  Then  the  race  being  complete 
in  moral  and  spiritual  union,  the  physical  ties  of 
earth  will  fall  out.  In  the  resurrection  they 
neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are 
as  the  angels  of  God  in  heaven,  (v.  30).  On  such 
an  objection  as  that,  shortsighted  and  foolish,  you 
have  cut  yourselves  off  from  the  highest  men  have 
thought,  from  the  loftiest  anticipations  they  have 
arrived  at  in  all  the  past.  u  Ye  do  greatly 
err.” 

And  as  to  the  profound  unfaith  in  a  future  life 
that  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole,  that  also  is 
an  assumption  based  on  inadequate  grounds,  and 
contradicted  by  much  even  in  present  experience. 
Men  live  on  here  in  influence  long  after  they  have 
passed  away.  Recognizing  this  fact,  God  in  deal¬ 
ing  with  subsequent  generations  identified  Himself 
with  these  men  in  whom  His  purpose  took  root 
and  form,  calling  Himself  the  God  of  Abraham  and 
the  God  of  Isaac  and  of  Jacob.  Does  God  in  the 
living  evolution  of  His  purpose  identify  Himself 
and  His  Kingdom  with  dead  men — extinguished 
individualities  ?  He  is  the  eternally  living  One  who 
has  founded  a  Kingdom  to  lift  men  into  His  own 


QUESTIONERS  AND  OPPONENTS  267 

life.  And  those  who  are  with  Him,  undying 
potencies  of  His  Kingdom,  must  live  with  Him. 

This  was  more  than  a  confutation.  A  pro¬ 
foundly  luminous  view  was  thrown  around,  not 
only  the  unseen,  but  the  whole  movement  of 
revelation  onward  into  the  unseen.  These  Sad- 
ducees  were  believers  in  Scripture,  but  in  a 
rationalizing  spirit  or  rather  in  a  study  of  the  letter, 
they  had  become  insensible  to  the  life  and  move¬ 
ment  of  the  word.  Behind  the  letter  of  Scrip¬ 
ture,  Jesus  revealed  the  living  God  moving  on 
from  stage  to  stage  of  a  redemptive  purpose.  God 
was  in  and  with  the  word  reaching  out  to  the 
future  as  He  had  advanced  from  age  to  age  in  the 
past.  Still,  when  one  part  of  His  work  was  done, 
He  moved  on  to  a  new  plane,  retaining  the  essence 
of  the  old,  Jetting  drop  the  surface  elements  of 
His  earlier  manifestation. 

An  adequate  view  of  revelation  as  the  word 
of  a  living  God,  killed  an  inadequate  because 
unspiritual  view.  These  slaves  of  the  letter,  who 
in  torturing  and  twisting  the  mere  language  of 
Scripture  to  justify  and  work  out  their  dogmatic 
position,  had  lost  all  living  hold  of  the  word,  see 
what  it  meant  to  their  fathers — the  message  of  a 
living  God  which  lifted  those  who  received  it 
into  fellowship  with  the  divine.  Having  not 
wholly  broken  with  their  ancestral  faith  these 
Sadducees  are  silenced,  so  silenced  that  for  once 


268  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


the  Pharisees  rejoiced  in  Christ’s  work,  and 
gathered  to  felicitate  themselves  on  such  a  com¬ 
plete  defeat. 

That  was  a  most  testing  situation  for  our  Master, 
but  He  leaves  a  perfect  example  for  us  who  are  to 
follow.  The  argumentative  force  of  Elis  answer 
was  shattering,  but  not  content  with  triumphing, 
He  greatened  life,  exalted  God,  illumined  revelation 
and  moved  on  to  a  spiritual  end.  His  opponents 
were  convicted  of  wilfulness  and  foolishness  if 
haply  they  might  turn. 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE 


X 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE 

We  come  now  to  a  subject  of  some  difficulty,  yet 
which  is  full  of  light  and  guidance  for  Christian 
ministers  when  dealing  with  aroused  conditions  of 
popular  feeling,  and  seasons  of  revival.  There  is 
nothing  in  Christ’s  teaching  corresponding  to  the 
distinction  drawn  between  esoteric  and  exoteric  by 
some  Greek  philosophers.  Pythagoras  in  Magna 
Graecia  founded  a  community  bound  to  purity  and 
piety  of  life,  but  reserved  the  mysteries  of  his 
number-theory  for  the  initiated.  Aristotle  lectured 
each  morning  to  select  pupils  on  abstruse  sciences, 
and  in  the  evening  to  a  more  popular  auditory  on 
more  general  themes. 

Christ,  however,  drew  no  such  distinction. 
Appealing  not  so  much  even  in  His  profoundest 
teachings  to  a  disciplined  intelligence  as  to  a 
spiritual  nature  receptive  of  the  divine,  wherever 
He  found  openness  of  mind  He  unveiled  the 
deepest  mysteries.  If  He  spoke  to  a  Nicodemus 
of  regeneration, — to  the  Samaritan  woman  He 
announced  His  Messiahship.  Round  the  inner 


27i 


2 72  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


circle  of  His  disciples  stood  multitudes  of  the 
people,  when  He  uttered  the  Sermon  on  the 
mount  Before  a  crowd  of  contentious  Jews  He 
spoke  of  Himself  as  the  door  and  the  Good  Shep¬ 
herd  who  gave  His  life  for  the  sheep.  Martha, 
accosting  Him  on  the  public  path,  received  the 
astounding  declaration  u  I  am  the  Resurrection  and 
the  Life.”  The  Ancient  Mariner  sings : — 

“  The  moment  that  his  face  I  see, 

I  know  the  man  that  must  hear  me, — 

To  him  my  tale  I  teach. ” 

And  so,  trying  by  the  plummet  of  his  own  appre¬ 
hensive  sympathy  each  soul  to  whom  He  came,  our 
Lord,  according  to  a  wisdom  high  above  our 
thought,  uttered  Himself.  He  surprised  Nathanael 
with  a  forecast  of  His  ascension.  At  Levi’s  feast, 
when  made  aware  of  the  murmurs  of  the  Jews, 
Jesus  spoke  of  the  sons  of  the  Bride-chamber,  and 
the  Bridegroom :  and  hinted  the  far-reaching  and 
revolutionary  thought  that  the  new  wine  of  His 
teaching  would  need  the  containing  circumference 
of  new  forms.  (Matt.  ix.  17.) 

He  taught  also  immediate  access  to  the  Father 
for  all  believers,  the  unspeakable  privilege  of  a 
life  lived  in  contact  with  the  Father,  everything 
being  done  as  unto  the  Father,  alms  being  per¬ 
formed  in  secret  to  every  eye  but  His,  prayers 
offered  to  Him  alone,  fasting  and  loyalty  to  Him 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  273 

carried  to  the  verge  of  suffering — in  a  word  the 
give  and  take  of  an  immediate  holy  fellowship 
pervading  the  common  believing  life. 

From  all  which  it  follows  that  neither  in  the  ancient 
philosopher’s  sense,  nor  in  the  Roman  sacerdotal 
sense  does  this  distinction  obtain.  The  people  are 
not  kept  in  an  outer  court  and  fed  with  the 
findings  of  the  inner  circle  ;  nor  are  they  called 
to  bow  to  the  Church  simply  accepting  what  it  is 
pleased  to  impart.  The  way  into  the  holiest  is 
open  for  all.  uIf  any  one  will  do  His  will,  He 
shall  know.”  (John  vii.  17.) 

One  cannot  travel  far,  however,  in  a  study  of 
the  Gospel  without  perceiving,  that — as  with  the 
prophets — there  is  a  use  of  reserve  by  Christ  of 
a  very  remarkable  kind,  and  touching  the  very 
centre  of  our  theme.  This  was  one  of  His  methods 
of  dealing  with  men,  and  in  regard  to  the  funda¬ 
mental  issue  which  He  came  to  raise,  their  relation 
to  God.  In  this  we  touch  the  difficult  side  of  the 
Gospel,  the  divine  economy  in  the  dispensation  of 
grace.  On  the  one  hand  there  is  an  infinite  ful¬ 
ness,  a  discovery  of  God  as  fatherly  love,  of  the 
Son  as  a  way  to  the  Father,  of  an  immediate  life 
of  love  with  the  Father  to  whosoever  may  come, 
and  of  resurrection  and  eternal  life  following  on 
simple  faith.  This  Gospel  soars  to  an  infinite 
height  in  its  provisions,  and  speaks  in  universals 
at  every  point  when  it  touches  human  need,  or 

s 


274  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

unfolds  for  acceptance  a  divine  ideal.  And  in  the 
whole  manner  of  the  manifestation  there  breathes 
not  only  such  a  sincerity,  but  such  a  grandeur  and 
intensity  of  divine  purpose,  as  has  made  the  com¬ 
munication  of  this  loving  message  the  turning 
point  of  time  and  the  new  birth  of  humanity. 

Yet  I  find  a  most  strict  economy  in  the  dispensa¬ 
tion  of  this  marvellous  grace,  not  simply  as  a 
matter  of  fact  through  the  hardness  of  men’s 
hearts  in  refusing  to  respond,  but  through  the 
form  of  speech  designed  and  employed  by  Christ, 
and  all  by  ordering  of  God.  Take  this  short 
account  of  the  matter  by  Mark  (iv.  12.)  u  And  He 
said  unto  them,  Unto  you  is  given  the  mystery  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  but  unto  them  that  are  with¬ 
out  all  things  are  done  in  parables :  that  seeing 
they  may  see  and  not  perceive,  and  hearing  they 
might  hear  and  not  understand,  lest  haply  they 
should  turn  and  it  should  be  forgiven  them.” 
Along  with  this  we  should  take  the  other  great 
passages  bearing  on  the  same  theme  (Matthew  xiii. 
10-14;  Luke  viii.  10;  John  xii.  39,  40),  besides 
keeping  our  eye  on  the  facts  of  the  case,  noting 
how  the  parables  bear  out  this  view. 

In  endeavouring  to  harmonise  what  are  ap¬ 
parently  opposing  views,  one  cannot  overlook 
the  fact  that  an  attempt  is  thus  being  made  to 
retrieve  error  which  has  had  a  disastrous  influence 
on  the  spread  of  the  evangel,  and  to  bring  out  a 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  275 


whole  region  of  truth,  not  only  of  great  inherent 
interest,  as  showing  how  Christ’s  method  is 
bottomed  on  basal  laws  of  the  human  spirit,  but 
fitted  to  give  a  new  urgency  and  intensity  to  our 
proclamation  of  the  Gospel. 

To  begin  with,  then,  we  must  take  these  words 
as  they  stand  in  the  full  reach  of  their  assertion, 
and  in  the  plain  meaning  of  the  language.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  cannot  ignore  the  fact  that 
they  do  not  stand  alone,  but  occur  in  connection 
with  a  discovery  of  a  purpose  of  grace  so  universal 
and  glorious  as  on  a  preceding  page  I  have  de¬ 
scribed.  Further,  having  thus  to  deal  with  an 
antinomy  or  apparent  contradiction  of  no  ordinary 
difficulty,  we  must  approximate  to  the  full  recon¬ 
ciliation  which  lies  hid  from  us  in  the  counsels  of 
God,  along  such  lines  of  fact  and  principle  as  Christ 
Himself  furnishes,  counting  every  step  forward  a 
gain,  even  if  we  should  be  compelled  to  cease  far 
short  of  the  goal. 

The  clue  to  a  solution  is  to  be  found  in  that 
view  of  Christ’s  method  which  we  have  been 
developing  all  through  these  lectures.  Christ  was 
not  a  mere  teacher  diffusing  ideas  which  He  left  to 
win  their  way,  thus  making  contribution  to  the 
common  stock  of  mankind.  He  was  a  revealer  of 
the  Father  come  to  found  a  Kingdom  of  God,  and 
authorised  to  raise  a  direct  issue  between  every 
man  and  God.  Yea  further,  with  an  arrogance 


276  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


that  would  be  intolerable  if  He  were  a  mere  man, 
— He  made  belief  in  Himself  the  one  supreme  and 
final  test  of  a  man’s  submission  or  rebellion.  With¬ 
out  circumlocution,  or  any  softening  of  general 
theory,  He  made  the  soul’s  attitude  to  Himself 
the  one  ground  of  final  judgment.  uHe  that 
believeth  on  Him  is  not  judged  ;  he  that  believeth 
not  hath  been  judged  already,  because  he  hath  not 
believed  on  the  name  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God.”  (John  iii.  18.) 

But  we  must  go  further  into  this  matter  in  order 
to  be  suitably  impressed  with  the  nature  of  the 
issue  which  Christ  came  to  raise.  It  was  not  an 
issue  raised  between  a  man  and  himself  alone, 
whether  he  would  be  saved,  whether  he  was 
ready  to  undo  the  past, — although  that  personal 
issue  was  certainly  involved.  It  was  something 
beyond  and  more  all  embracing, — whether  now  that 
sinners  had  seen  God  as  He  stood  revealed  in 
Christ,  and  His  gracious  design  to  receive  them 
in  His  Son,  they  would  come  out  of  the  evil  of 
their  sin  and  yield  themselves  to  Him,  receive  His 
grace  and  enter  into  His  Kingdom.  This  was  not 
a  resolve  that  would  be  in  time  just  before  the 
judgment,  as  if  it  were  a  question  of  mere  safety 
or  escape.  It  is  a  question  which  must  be 
settled  when  it  is  fully  raised — for  it  means  neces¬ 
sarily  this,  are  you  prepared  now  to  recognise  the 
claim  of  God,  choosing  the  light  which  is  come  to 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  2 77 


you,  or  are  you,  in  full  view  of  God’s  light,  to  re¬ 
affirm  your  opposition  ?  There  is  no  loophole  for 
delay.  The  only  alternatives  are  for  or  against. 
And  what  liberates  from,  or  rivets,  the  bands  of  con¬ 
demnation,  is  heart  loyalty  or  disloyalty  to  the  light 
and  love  of  God  revealed  in  the  Son.  The  whole 
man,  what  he  fundamentally  is,  stands  discovered 
in  the  trembling  of  the  needle  of  his  moral  self  to 
or  from  God.  And  that  settles  everything.  u  He 
that  is  not  with  me  is  against  me.”  (Matt.  xii.  30.) 

If  ever  a  preacher  went  for  immediate  results, 
Christ  was  that  preacher.  There  is  a  passage  in 
Luke  which  I  read  with  unspeakable  awe,  coming 
immediately  after  that  discourse  in  the  synagogue 
at  Capernaum  which  I  have  dwelt  on  at  length 
(Luke  iv.  23-28.)  The  scene  is  most  vividly 
brought  before  us.  The  discourse  done,  there  is 
just  such  a  stir  in  the  synagogue  as  takes  place  in 
any  church  after  a  powerful  and  searching  sermon. 
Some  are  touched  in  their  feelings,  some  are  pro¬ 
foundly  moved  in  judgment  and  conscience,  some 
heart-whole  but  intellectually  excited,  say  what  a 
fine  passage  this,  what  a  touching  reference  that. 
But  there  was  that  day  One  who  knew  the  human 
heart  looking  on,  searching  to  see  what  impression 
this  message  had  made.  I  seem  to  see  in  His  face 
the  slowly  mounting  sorrow.  He  is  verifying  in 
His  own  experience  a  proverb  that  comes  leaping 
into  His  mind.  True  is  that  saying  as  I  find  in  my 


278  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


bitter  experience,  no  prophet  is  accepted  in  his  own 
country.  They  are  all  taken  up  with  His  wonders, 
are  on  tiptoe  of  expectation,  feeling  that  they  have 
a  special  claim  on  Him  for  such  a  vindication  of 
His  powers.  uAy,”  breathes  out  the  Master, 
u  you  are  all  alive  with  the  thought  of  judging  Me, 
but  do  you  know  God  is  judging  you  ?  In  the 
days  of  Elias  He  went  past  so  many  sealed  in  their 
torpor,  and  only  revealed  Himself  to  the  open  heart 
of  the  widow  of  Sarepta.”  Was  He  going  to  pass 
by  them,  and  for  a  similar  reason,  because  they 
had  neither  eye  nor  heart  for  deeper  things  ? 

What  does  He  say  in  the  first  of  His  heptachord 
of  parables  recorded  in  Matthew  xiii.  ?  u  Behold 
a  sower  went  forth  to  sow.”  His  words  were 
seeds,  life  germs,  that  were  for  no  good  save  as 
they  germinated  in  men’s  lives.  Let  them  lie  on  the 
surface  and  they  would  be  taken  off;  they  had  to  be 
received  into  the  proper  soil  of  fully  open  souls  to 
bring  forth  fruit.  Decision  was  a  present  business. 
There  might  be  a  few  weeks  indecision  on  the 
part  of  observers,  as  to  how  the  seed  received  was 
going  to  take  root  and  grow.  But  the  moment 
the  seed  fell,  it  must  be  received  or  not  received. 
How  often  did  He  say,  “  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear 
let  him  hear  ?  ”  He  frankly  recognised  that  there 
were  many,  forcibly  repressing  consideration  of  His 
claims.  u  Ye  will  not  come  to  Me  that  ye  might 
have  life”  (John  v.  40).  While  others  had  definitely 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  279 


made  choice  of  a  policy  of  resistance.  u  Ye  are  of 
your  father,  the  devil,  and  the  works  of  your  father 
ye  will  do”  (John  viii.  44).  In  a  word,  He  summed 
them  up,  took  careful  account  of  their  attitude,  and 
determined  His  course  by  the  degree  of  receptivity 
or  non-receptivity  which  He  found  among  them. 
He  never  allowed  His  consciousness  of  a  limited — 
a  very  limited  result — to  interfere  with,  or  damp 
even,  His  universal  aim.  He  knew  that  He  could 
trust  the  Father  for  some  result ;  and  as  a  Son, 
He  did  not  seek  to  go  beyond  that  conviction.  u  All 
that  the  Father  giveth  Me  shall  come  to  Me,  and 
him  that  cometh  unto  Me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast 
out  ”  (John  vi.  37).  Surely  in  all  this  He  is  a 
perfect  model  for  every  preacher  of  His  truth. 

And  now  arise,  in  practical  experience,  the 
difficulties,  and,  as  meeting  these,  the  considera¬ 
tions  which  have  given  origin  to  these  difficult 
statements  of  Christ  which  we  are  at  present  con¬ 
sidering.  Where  men  have  received  His  truth 
they  must  be  carried  further  on.  To  follow 
Christ’s  figure,  you  cannot  stifle  a  germinating  seed. 
You  must  feed  it  with  juices  of  earth  and  the 
air  of  heaven.  Similarly,  life  in  the  believing  soul 
is  only  a  newly  quickened  capacity  of  living.  It 
must  be  fed  on  truth  and  fertilised  by  the  Spirit. 
Contrariwise,  the  non-acceptance,  or  rejection  of 
Christ  closes  up  and  commits  the  man  to  a  life  of 
estrangement  from  Him.  He  has  lost  the  key  to 


2  8o  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


the  mind  of  Christ.  He  has  dropped  down  into  an 
alien  sphere  of  thought  and  feeling.  If  Christ 
were  by  direct  and  positive  statement  to  unfold 
the  further  course  of  His  kingdom,  first  of  all  they 
could  not  understand  it  as  Christ  meant  that  these 
truths  should  be  understood.  But  they  might  and 
would  misunderstand,  set  afloat  misconceptions  which 
would  hinder  the  progress  of  His  Kingdom,  and 
even  organise  on  colourable  enough  inferences  from 
Christ’s  words,  oppositions  of  the  most  formidable 
kinds,  which  would  create  insuperable  difficulties, 
humanly  speaking,  to  the  progress  of  the  Gospel. 

The  Master’s  consciousness  of  His  mission  made 
Him  none  the  less  but  rather  the  more  eager 
when  it  could  be  attained,  to  minimise  friction,  to 
obviate  the  result  of  misconception,  to  neutralise 
hostility,  and  keep  the  road  free  for  His  spiritual 
mission.  And  in  this  practical  spirit  He  acts  on 
this  occasion.  Matthew  has  given  the  clue  to 
His  mind  in  two  significant  verses  (xiii.  12,  13) 
u  For  whosoever  hath  to  him  shall  be  given,  and 
he  shall  have  abundantly,  but  whosoever  hath  not, 
from  him  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he 
hath.  Therefore  I  speak  unto  them  in  parables.” 
Verse  12  appears  elsewhere  in  other  connections, 
but  it  is  equally  in  keeping  here.  Indeed  we 
might  venture  to  say  that  some  such  statement  was 
necessary.  Because  it  removes  the  whole  subject 
from  the  ground  of  apparent  arbitrariness,  to  that 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  281 


of  spiritual  law,  in  full  consistency  with  the  intensity 
and  breadth  of  Christ’s  evangelical  aim.  This  is  a 
necessity  forced  on  Jesus  by  the  attitude  of  men, 
not  an  arbitrary  limit  imposed  by  Himself. 

And  notice  the  nature  of  the  limit  which  Christ 
imposes.  He  does  not  become  a  teacher  in  camera 
and  shut  out  the  unsympathetic  public.  He  stands 
in  the  common  way,  by  shore  or  on  the  mountain 
side.  To  the  very  end  He  is  always  eager  and 
ready  for  every  receptive  heart.  But,  surely  with 
matchless  skill,  He  embodies  in  a  series  of  vivid 
parables  the  further  teaching  of  His  Kingdom,  so 
as  to  convey  its  spiritual  import  to  the  spiritually 
prepared,  without  giving  one  hint  to  the  unspiritual 
of  the  revolutionary  external  changes  which  would 
have  to  come  about  before  those  spiritual  principles 
would  be  realised.  If  there  was  one  spark  of 
spiritual  receptiveness  in  any  one,  these  parables 
would  awaken  some  echo  within  them,  but  if  not, 
they  were  left  blind  to  the  full  compass  and  issues 
of  the  divine  teaching — wholly  outside  the  spiritual 
evolution  of  truth  to  spiritual  eyes.  That  was  a 
fact — the  result  of  the  working  of  obvious  spiritual 
laws  ;  but  it  was  also  designed  by  Christ  (taking 
advantage  of  these  spiritual  laws)  as  a  necessity  of 
the  Kingdom.  Matthew  looks  at  the  fact —  “  be¬ 
cause  seeing  they  see  not,  and  hearing  they  hear 
not,  neither  understand.”  Mark  is  impressed  by 
divine  appointment  in  this.  u  That  seeing  they 


282  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


may  see  and  not  perceive,  and  hearing  they  may 
hear  and  not  understand.” 

To  fix  these  principles  in  our  memories  however, 
and  to  give  them  a  wider  scope  in  our  discursive 
intellects,  it  may  be  well  to  take  an  individual  case, 
and  show  from  unmistakable  practical  results  the 
necessity  for  such  a  use  of  reserve  as  is  taught 
here.  And  to  make  the  illustration  as  large  and 
impressive  as  possible,  let  us  take  the  catena  of 
parables  in  Matthew  xiii.  Suppose  that  instead 
of  these  parabolic  delineations  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  Kingdom,  so  luminous  to  us,  and  with  such  a 
hall-mark  of  divinity  on  every  line,  Christ  had 
made  a  positive  dogmatic  statement  differentiating 
the  new  from  the  old, — He  would  have  had  Jewry 
about  His  ears,  and  would  have  most  seriously 
embarrassed  His  own  followers.  For  it  meant  the 
effacement  of  the  hierarchy,  of  the  sacrificial  system, 
of  the  ceremonialism  enforced  with  such  rigour  by 
the  doctors  of  the  law — in  a  word,  of  all  the  char¬ 
acteristic  features  of  an  exclusive  Judaism.  Scholars 
among  them  would  see  that  the  nearest  approach 
to  Christ’s  ideal — though  far  enough  away — was 
in  the  Utopias  of  Greece.  Every  Jew  would  be 
shocked  more  by  what  he  did  not  find  there,  than 
by  what  he  did.  What  was  absent  was  the  whole 
shell  of  the  Judaism  under  which  he  lived,  what 
was  present  would  seem  to  him  a  dream.  Here 
was  to  be  a  Kingdom  of  the  truth,  which  lived  by 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  283 

the  germinating  power  inherent  in  the  truth, 
when  in  vital  contact  with  God  and  the  soul ; 
propagated  by  perpetual  diffusion,  live  souls  being 
used  to  kindle  life  in  others  ; — the  living  germina¬ 
ting  truth,  acting  like  leaven  to  leaven  other  lives  ; 
and  then  building  the  vitalized  units  into  the  tree 
of  an  articulated,  growing  and  expanding  kingdom. 
Living  then  as  truth — a  widely  diffused,  assimila¬ 
ting  force,  this  Kingdom  of  God  touched  human 
lives  in  all  sorts  of  circumstances,  came  upon  them 
at  unawares  as  a  buried  treasure,  shone  out  as  a 
human  ideal,  and  in  the  far-reaching  meshes  of 
its  public  proclamation  included  a  vast  multitude 
from  whom  a  separation  would  have  afterwards 
to  be  made. 

Had  these  been  laid  down  in  express  terms  as 
the  lines  of  a  reform  which  Jesus  would  inaugurate, 
there  would  have  been  contention  and  confusion 
on  all  sorts  of  side  issues,  appeals  to  Jewish  patriot¬ 
ism,  misrepresentation  of  ideas  which  they  were 
utterly  unprepared  to  fathom,  whose  outward  form 
and  manifestation  they  would  necessarily  miscon¬ 
ceive.  He  left  the  outward  form  in  which  these 
ideas  were  to  be  realised  entirely  out  of  account. 
He  did  not  even  formulate  in  propositions  the 
distinctive  outlines  of  His  kingdom.  In  parabolic 
form  He  cast  out  suggestions,  held  up  pictures, 
before  those  who  had  received  His  truth  or  showed 
openness  to  receive  it,  which  appealed  to  their 


284  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


awakened  spiritual  sense,  disseminated  germinating 
thoughts  which  would  work  out  in  actual  life  to 
their  own  realisation.  All  these  parables  are 
incentives  to  a  life  which  has  been  awakened,  to 
reach  out  in  all  sorts  of  directions,  and  to  take 
account  of  certain  spiritual  factors  present  in  all 
work  for  the  kingdom.  He  speaks  to  the  spiritual 
experiences  and  discernment  of  His  own.  The 
sower  sows — truth  must  fetch  others  as  it  had 
fetched  them  and  human  nature  would  still  stand 
to  the  truth  in  certain  definite  attitudes.  The 
truth  was  a  test  of  men  and  by  their  attitude  to  it 
would  discover  what  they  were. 

Then  among  the  germinating  forces  were  not 
only  the  word  but  the  lives  that  the  word  produced. 
But  step  for  step  with  the  quickening  influence  of 
consecrated  personality  would  arise  the  evil  one, 
disseminating  tares  which  having  a  colourable 
likeness  to  the  true, — lacked  wholly  its  renewing 
power.  Further,  the  truth  sown  had  life  potencies 
of  assimilation  and  organisation  which  would  secure 
success.  You  did  not  need  to  bring  attraction  to 
the  spiritual.  An  inherent  power,  not  only  of 
drawing  but  moulding,  resided  in  the  truth  itself. 
And  further,  it  would  so  entwine  itself  with  human 
life,  and  even  with  external  circumstances,  that 
forces  which  we  cannot  discern  would  work  for  its 
diffusion.  Here  chance  circumstances  in  a  family 
or  a  friend  will  discover  to  one  a  treasure  of  which 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  285 


he  never  dreamed  and  which  he  is  in  haste  to  buy. 
There,  shining  out  in  an  ideal  character,  spiritual 
good  seems  to  some  the  crown  of  all  other  good, 
which  they  are  willing  to  forfeit  that  they  may 
secure  that  prize.  Still  there  must  be  continuous 
conscious  effort  to  throw  the  net  around  souls,  to 
capture  men  by  and  for  the  truth.  Not  that  this 
will  be  an  ideal  or  perfect  process.  You  present 
truths,  and  must  accept — exercise  what  care  you 
please — the  credible  profession  of  men.  You 
cannot  follow  truth,  and  witness  its  acceptance  in 
the  secret  heart,  or  set  up  any  infallible  standard 
to  try  souls.  And  so  you  will  have  bad  among 
the  good, — who  will  be  separated  at  last. 

These  parables  are  life-powers — like  ganglia  in 
the  nervous  system — minor  centres  of  force  urging 
us  along  the  line  of  the  spirit,  guiding  to  the 
realisation  (which  the  parables  suggest)  of  the 
ideal  kingdom ;  only  to  those  who  yield  themselves 
to  the  teaching  of  Christ,  and  in  actual  service 
observe  these  counsels  of  Christ,  will  such  a 
kingdom  begin  to  dawn  in  actual  fact,  and  to 
develop  these  characteristic  features.  Here  Christ 
is  simply  following  the  normal  laws  of  His  ministry. 
He  comes  with  a  message  of  life  to  quicken  life. 
His  truths  are  life-powers  to  be  actually  realised 
by  living  them,  and  then  through  experience  of 
action  we  attain  to  know,  /.<?.,  inwardly  to  discern 
from  the  life  centre  at  which  we  stand. 


286  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


From  all  this  certain  main  positions  may  be  laid 
down  regarding  Christ’s  use  of  Reserve,  and  the 
understanding  of  the  series  of  passages  which  we 
have  been  studying.  Approaching  this  problem 
from  the  human  side,  and  having  respect  to  the 
forces  which  we  have  seen  to  be  in  operation — 
while  recognising  a  divine  sovereign  element 
beyond  our  capacity  of  thought — we  may  lay 
down  the  following  propositions. 

I.  That  there  is  no  discord,  but  a  real  moral 
harmony  in  Christ’s  mind  between  His  eagerness 
to  embrace  all,  and  His  use  of  reserve  in  speaking 
to  His  own  in  parables. 

II.  The  explanation  lies  in  fundamental  laws  of 
spiritual  character,  in  association  with  the  peculiar 
form  of  Christ’s  ministry. 

III.  He  came  to  raise  the  fundamental  crisis  of 
time — to  claim  the  personality  for  God  ;  and  every¬ 
thing  hung  on  man’s  acceptance  or  rejection. 

IV.  By  rejecting  Christ’s  claim,  men  affirmed 
their  former  rebellion,  went  back  into  the  coil  of 
their  old  alienation,  and  became  incapable  of  dis¬ 
cerning  from  within,  what  fundamentally  is  a 
spiritual  revelation. 

V.  In  unveiling  His  further  spiritual  message 
to  spiritual  men,  Christ  chose  the  parabolic  form 
as  that  by  which  he  could  convey  those  spiritual 
suggestions  to  the  disciples,  (following  which  they 
would  go  on  to  realise  Christ’s  ideal),  while  giving 


. 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  287 


no  hint  to  the  ^-spiritual  of  the  revolution  in 
which  this  would  culminate. 

VI.  In  this  way  there  is  no  artificial  blinding, 
no  going  out  of  his  way  to  limit  or  set  aside  some 
men’s  opportunities.  Christ  is  following  His  own 
uniform  plan  of  discovering  spiritual  reality  to 
spiritual  men,  who  receive  and  live  the  truth 
before  they  can  know.  Even  for  them  it  is  better 
to  see  the  step  to  be  next  taken,  the  counsel  to 
be  followed,  than  to  understand  all  the  issues  of 
their  action.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  their  rejec¬ 
tion  of  Christ,  their  closing  the  eye  to  the  spiritual, 
their  immersion  in  the  unspiritual  that  blinds  the  un¬ 
believing.  And  Christ  adopts  the  parabolic  form 
because,  since  they  have  blinded  and  hardened 
their  own  hearts,  it  is  most  desirable  in  the 
interests  of  the  kingdom  that  they  should  not  mis- 
see,  draw  wrong  conclusions,  jump  to  false  infer¬ 
ences,  embroiling  and  confounding  truth  and  error 
to  the  Church’s  infinite  harm.  Better,  far  better, 
that  seeing  they  should  see,  and  not  understand, 
than  that  they  should  misunderstand.  Reserve  is 
a  necessity  forced  on  Christ  by  the  unbelief  of 
'  men. 


There  is  a  still  further  difficulty  to  be  removed 
before  we  can  be  said  to  understand  Christ’s  use 
of  reserve,  or  learn  to  the  full  those  practical 
lessons  which  such  a  subject  is  fitted  to  teach. 


288  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Not  only  is  it  said  that  Christ  veiled  his  teaching 
in  parables  for  the  truth’s  sake,  in  order  that  the 
unspiritual  might  not  be  able  to  oppose  and 
harass  the  Kingdom.  In  the  original  passage  in 
Isaiah  on  which  all  the  Gospel  passages  found,  it 
is  implied,  as  is  also  stated  by  Mark,  that  all  things 
are  done  in  parables,  lest  at  any  time  they  should 
be  converted  and  their  sins  should  be  forgiven 
them.  As  if  there  were  a  positive  aim  to  exclude 
them  from  the  benefits  of  salvation. 

These  clauses  also  are  to  be  explained  along 
the  line  which  we  have  already  taken.  It  is  they 
themselves  who,  by  the  rejection  of  Christ,  have 
shut  themselves  out  from  any  spiritual  understand¬ 
ing  of  his  message ;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  Christ 
uses  reserve  as  regards  His  further  teachings  that 
they  might  not  use,  for  ends  of  hindrance  and 
opposition,  the  truth  which  they  had  lost  the 
power  of  understanding. 

But  there  was  another  reason  for  reserve.  There 
might  be  something  in  the  further  teaching  which 
would  create  an  unspiritual  enthusiasm.  They 
might  come  flocking  into  the  Church  to  realise  an 
ideal,  which  was  not  Christ's  ideal.  They  might 
come  flocking  into  the  Church  and  claim  the  grace 
of  God,  fired  with  a  passion  for  Christ  which  was 
not  according  to  Christ’s  own  mind.  He  had  the 
greatest  difficulty  when  on  earth  in  obviating  the 
endeavours  to  make  him  a  king.  Similarly  in 


CHRIST’S  USE  OF  RESERVE  289 

the  times  of  the  Crusades  western  Europe  was 
carried  away  by  a  mistaken  enthusiasm,  urged  by 
multitudes,  of  great  religious  intensity,  but  to 
whom  the  true  meaning  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
was  hid.  As  serving  many  subordinate  ends  that 
movement  was  permitted,  but  if  it  were  not  for 
such  reserves  in  Christianity,  Christ  might  come 
to  be  represented  by  men  who  were  disloyal  to 
His  central  aim.  How  many  to-day  would  exploit 
Christianity  in  the  interest  of  socialism,  the  civic 
church  and  such-like  civic  claims.  The  reserves 
that  are  not  only  in  the  parables  but  in  the  whole 
system  of  Christianity,  however,  absolutely  hinder 
any  such  appropriation.  And  so  they  safe-guard 
the  situation.  It  is  utterly  impossible  that  any 
should  have  the  stamp  of  His  grace  and  forgive¬ 
ness  except  those  who  are  in  His  secret  and  have 
come  fully  round  to  His  standpoint  and  method. 
Whatever  those  unspiritual  exponents  of  frag¬ 
mentary  and  dissociated  ideas  of  Christ  may  have, 
they  have  not  upon  them  the  mighty  operations 
of  His  grace. 

These  passages  then,  in  their  utmost  reach, 
impose  no  limits  on  the  grace  of  God.  They  simply 
describe  the  devices  of  infinite  wisdom  for  pre¬ 
venting  the  abuse  and  perversion  of  His  message 
by  those  who  have  rejected  His  offer  and  cut 
themselves  off  from  His  grace.  The  universals  of 
grace  remain  for  all  who  are  willing  to  receive, 

T 


290  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

only  God  is  not  to  be  trifled  with.  He  has  raised 
for  every  human  being  the  test  issue.  And  if 
they  do  not  loyally  and  wholly  yield  to  His  love, 
He  will  not  let  them  toy  and  tamper  with  His 
message. 

And  now,  has  not  this  whole  subject  a  bearing 
upon  our  work  as  preachers  of  the  evangel  ? 
This  is  what  gives  Christ’s  life  its  imperishable 
value.  Underlying  every  act,  or  measure,  or 
provision,  are  spiritual  laws  inherent  in  man’s  being 
as  spiritual,  and  in  the  spiritual  universe  of  God. 
We  cannot  be  too  particular  in  the  study  of  them. 
If  we  would  know  the  nature  upon  which  we  have 
to  work,  the  message  we  bring,  the  result  at  which 
we  aim,  the  consequences  of  success  and  failure, 
we  must  wait  upon  these  gospels  until  their 
secrets  are  discovered  to  our  spirits.  If  I  have 
indicated  in  the  faintest  way  the  mines  of  treasure 
which  are  to  be  found  in  them,  this  course  will 
not  have  been  without  result  in  your  lives. 


PRAYER  AS  BRINGING  IN  THE  KINGDOM 

OF  GOD 


XI 


PRAYER  AS  BRINGING  IN  THE  KINGDOM 

OF  GOD 

In  this  lecture  we  purpose  dealing  in  brief  compass 
with  the  necessary  complement  and  completion  of 
that  magnetism  of  Christ,  which  has  been  the 
subject  of  the  nine  preceding  chapters.  The  very 
end  of  those  subtle  methods  of  attraction  was  to 
awaken  a  response.  In  all  hearty  and  living 
response  there  must  be  allowed  place  for  the  free 
expression  of  trust  and  love  and  desire  and  petition, 
on  the  part  of  those  whose  hearts  have  been  won. 
The  love  which  drew  men  must  make  room  for 
the  utterance  of  their  love  and  for  the  fulfilment  of 
their  supplications,  so  that  they  may  come  freely, 
along  the  line  of  their  individual  aspirations,  into 
conscious  harmony  of  will  and  endeavour  with 
their  Lord.  And  so  there  emerges  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  the  characteristic  message  and 
mission  of  Jesus,  the  great  subject  of  prayer.  In 
kingdoms  of  force  and  law,  prayer  is  a  rare  and 
exceptional  expedient,  coming  in  to  alter  or  set 
aside  the  ordinary  course  of  procedure.  In  the 
kingdom  of  love,  prayer  is  the  vital  bond  between 
the  child  and  his  Father,  the  means  of  communica- 

293 


294  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


tion,  the  channel  by  which  the  whole  being  of  the 
believer  lies  open  to  the  inflow  of  the  divine  will 
and  energy.  From  the  human  side  it  is  the  very 
law  of  progress,  what  we  might  call  the  soul  of 
procedure,  an  indispensable  element  and  condition 
of  the  renewed  life. 

We  cannot,  however,  within  the  prescribed 
limits,  deal  with  this  whole  subject.  For  it  is 
vaster  than  we  have  seen,  because  the  mission  of 
Jesus  went  on  the  assumption  of  an  abysmal  sense 
of  God  in  every  man,  and  aimed  to  awaken  that 
into  conscious  desire  and  supplication.  And  so  we 
would  have  to  consider  prayer  as  the  cry — in  a 
sense  the  natural  cry — of  human  dependence  under 
the  spur  of  need.  Following  on  this  we  have  the 
wide  sphere  of  its  activities  in  the  spiritual  life,  the 
range  and  varieties  of  prayer,  answers  to  prayer, 
and  so  forth.  Then  as  touching  for  many  the 
reality  and  fulness  of  the  life  of  prayer,  there  are 
intellectual  difficulties,  such  as  the  question  of  the 
possibility  of  prayer  in  consistence  with  natural  law. 
Nothing  could  be  more  interesting  than  to  pursue 
those  inquiries.  But  for  those  who  have  proved 
the  reality  of  prayer  and  its  answer,  such  dis¬ 
cussions  are  not  indispensable,  and  there  is  truth 
beyond  these,  of  immense  importance  to  those 
who  have  become  fellow-labourers  with  Christ 
in  carrying  forward  the  divine  Kingdom. 

We  have  seen  in  previous  portions  that  Christ 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  295 


expects  His  people  to  be  witnesses.  The  good 
seed  are  the  children  of  the  Kingdom.  It  is  of 
the  essence  of  His  purpose  to  build  up  His  Church 
through  a  ministry  called,  trained,  and  set  apart. 
And  sovereignly  He  thrusts  forth  exceptional  minis¬ 
tries  as  He  may  see  fit  from  time  to  time.  Since 
then  it  is  the  Master’s  plan  to  discover  Himself 
through  human  individuals  whom  He  has  drawn 
into  the  circle  of  His  own  will,  there  must  be  the 
closest  contact  between  the  servant  and  the  Master, 
which  From  the  human  side  can  only  be  carried  on 
by  the  intermediacy  of  prayer.  Our  distinctive 
aim  then  is  to  survey  from  every  side  the  nature 
of  this  contact  and  communion  in  bringing  in  the 
kingdom  of  God.  And  as  it  will  only  be  possible 
in  a  single  lecture  to  lay  down  general  principles, 
we  shall  marshal  our  findings  under  a  series  of 
main  and  subordinate  heads.  Such  a  subject 
cannot  be  studied  to  profit,  apart  from  immediate 
consideration  of  the  statements  of  divine  promise. 

We  shall  begin  then,  with  some  general  con¬ 
siderations,  designed  to  enforce  upon  such  as  may 
be  comparatively  new  to  spiritual  work,  the  in¬ 
dispensableness  of  prayer,  its  central  place  in  our 
whole  activity,  the  original  and  creative  elements 
in  our  work  which  are  entirely  owing  to  its  con¬ 
tinuous  and  powerful  presence.  As  breathing  is 
to  life,  so  is  prayer  to  spiritual  success. 

(1)  In  this  region  answer  follows  petition  with 


2 96  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

a  regularity  and  immediateness  hardly  to  be  found 
on  lower  levels.  We  are  not  asking  our  Lord  to 
do  our  will,  but  as  those  committed  and  called  to 
His  service,  we  are  asking  Him  to  do  His  own  will 
and  glorify  His  own  name.  Yea,  the  association 
is  closer  and  more  intimate.  Like  our  Lord  we 
should  do  nothing  by  ourselves.  We  should  be 
in  His  hand  to  be  guided,  taught,  energized. 
Yea,  more,  we  should  seek,  before  service,  such 
close  fellowship  that  we  feel  His  hand  upon  us, 
thrusting  us  forth  for  this  work.  And  therefore 
we  should  expect  and  look  for  and  count  upon 
answers.  Of  course  the  issues  of  all  work  are  in 
the  sovereign  hand  of  God.  But  His  faithfulness 
will  never  fail.  We  should  expect  to  see  signs 
following.  For  ambassadors  to  toil  on  without  any 
anxiety  as  to  what  response  God  is  to  have  from 
His  testimony  through  us,  shows  in  the  messenger 
careless  indifference  to  the  results  of  his  mission, 
insensibility  to  the  needs  of  men. 

(2)  For  nothing  do  workers  need  spiritual  train¬ 
ing  more  than  for  eflectual  prayer.  Prayer  is  not 
merely  a  petition  to  substitute  our  will  for  His 
own,  but  always  should  come  from  one  who  has 
made  God’s  will  his,  who  mourns  sin  as  an  infraction 
of  that  will,  and  who  longs  to  be  used  of  God  to 
bring  those  who  have  wandered  back  into  accord 
with  His  will.  This  realised  oneness  of  mind  and 
will  with  God  is  the  very  pivot  of  the  soul’s  assur- 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  297 

ance,  that  He  will  come  in  power  to  work  with  His 
servants’  words. 

(3)  Prayer,  however,  while  in  essence  of  this 
nature,  is  not  simply  a  falling  in  with  the  divine  will. 
In  such  prayer  the  believer’s  specific  requests  come 
up  before  God,  and  He  is  pleased,  in  the  give  and 
take  of  love,  to  exercise  His  divine  power  in  the 
lines  and  measures  of  His  servant’s  faith.  “  Accord¬ 
ing  to  your  faith  so  be  it  unto  you.”  (Matt.  ix. 
29.)  “If  ye  ask  anything  in  my  Name,  that  will  I 
do.”  (John  xiv.  14.)  And  so  there  is  a  human 
impress  on  all  the  works  of  the  divine  power.  The 
human  personality  in  the  quality  and  range  of  faith 
is  always  a  distinct  element  in  the  blessing  or 
victory  achieved.  And  so  the  human  channels  by 
whom  God  works,  are  identified  inseparably  with 
the  movements  to  which  under  God  they  gave  rise. 

Having  laid  down  these  considerations  generally 
to  deepen  conviction  regarding  the  importance  of 
prayer,  let  us  now,  even  at  the  risk  of  laying  down 
some  things  already  advanced,  sketch  in  outline 
the  elements  which  enter  into  the  practice  of 
intercession. 

I.  In  all  such  prayer  there  must  be  profound 
personal  submission — the  worker  not  only  entering 
into  God’s  will,  but  espousing  it  as  the  passion  of 
his  life. 

Preceding  any  committal  of  God  in  answer,  there 
is  a  self-committal  of  the  worker  to  the  will  of 


298  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


God.  There  must  also  be  meditation,  entering  into 
rapturous  apprehension  of  His  will. 

We  are  referring  at  this  point  to  the  prayer  of 
intercession  and  that  alone.  The  best  instance  of 
this  truth  is  in  the  Lord’s  Prayer.  (Matt.  vi. 
9-13.)  Our  Lord  teaches  us  to  pray,  by  bringing 
us  before  the  Father  and  lifting  us  into  contempla¬ 
tion  of  the  essential  glory  of  God,  His  name,  His 
characteristic  excellencies.  How  they  are  slighted, 
ignored,  trampled  on!  Grief  for  this  neglect, 
desire  for  the  divine  triumph  make  us  pray. 

And  thus  beyond  any  personal  desire,  before 
any  individual  petition,  He  draws  out  the  child  into 
a  passion  for  the  glory  of  the  Father.  Let  Thy 
Name  be  hallowed.  I  live  for  this,  but  I  cannot 
secure  this.  Thou  alone  canst  affect  this  through 
the  surrendered  wills  of  thy  servants.  Hallowed 
be  Thy  Name. 

Advancing  from  this  expression  of  personal  devo¬ 
tion  to  the  very  being  and  glory  of  God,  He  leads 
the  believer  out  to  pray  for  the  historic  kingdom 
in  which  the  purpose  of  God  is  expressed,  that  His 
whole  will  written  out  in  every  phase  of  His  self¬ 
revelation  may  be  done  on  earth,  as  that  will  in  its 
higher  manifestations  is  accomplished  in  the  celestial 
city.  And  then  it  is  to  be  noted  that  personal 
petitions  come  in  as  for  those  who  are  thus 
identified  with  the  will  of  God,  that  they  may  be 
strengthened  and  preserved  for  His  service. 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  299 

II.  Prayer  being  the  language  of  the  new 
relation  of  sonship  with  the  Father,  the  liberty 
of  petition  springs  from  the  freedom  of  fellowship 
which  He  encourages  in  that  relation :  and  the 
answer  is  from  the  spontaneous  judgment  of  the 
Father’s  heart  and  mind,  in  view  of  all  that  He 
discovers  in  His  praying  child. 

(1)  Here  we  reach  in  to  the  secret  soul  of 
prayer.  God  could  put  everything  in  our  way 
without  our  asking,  as  every  day  He  makes  direct 
provision  for  us  absolutely  at  His  own  hand,  and 
often  without  even  recognition  on  our  part.  But 
in  that  case  where  would  the  son-life  be,  the 
liberty  of  the  children  with  their  Father,  the  self¬ 
revelation  of  the  Father  among  His  children — 
joying  over  them  with  joy  and  resting  in  His 
love  ? 

(2)  Jesus  puts  prayer  expressly  on  that  ground 
of  the  fatherly  and  filial  relation.  It  is  the  son’s 
asking — the  son’s  sense  of  need  that  weighs  with 
the  father  ;  it  is  confidence  in  the  father  which 
brings  the  son  frankly  and  freely  with  every  need. 
And  out  of  the  fatherly  heart  comes  not  only  the 
impulse  but  the  discernment  to  give  gifts  that  are 
good  to  his  own.  That  is  the  native  property  of 
fatherhood — a  What  man  is  there  of  you  who  if 
his  son  shall  ask  him  for  a  loaf,”  etc.  (Matt.  vii. 
9,  etc.) 

(3)  But  not  only  does  Jesus  explain  this  from 


300  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

the  ground  of  natural  fatherhood.  When  as  in 
His  great  communion  discourse  He  unfolds  the 
filial  union  between  Father  and  believers  in  Him¬ 
self,  three  times  over  He  follows  this  up  with 
invitations  to  the  prayer  life.  The  connections 
are  most  helpful  for  our  ministry.  In  John  xiv.  12- 
14,  after  asserting  His  union  with  the  Father,  that 
He  is  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in  Him  as  His 
works  show,  Jesus  goes  on  to  say,  “  He  that 
believeth  in  me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do 
also,  and  greater  works  shall  he  do,  because  I  go 
unto  the  Father.”  There  was  not  time  for  the 
Father  to  show  forth  in  Christ  all  the  results  of 
that  union,  since  the  Son  was  so  soon  to  go  away. 
But  these  would  be  shown  forth  in  the  human  sons 
joined  lo  the  Father  in  the  divine  Son.  And  now 
for  this  high  destiny  the  golden  gates  of  prayer 
open ;  that  the  Father  may  be  glorified  in  the  Son 
through  His  people  on  earth  is  the  fulness  of 
liberty  vouchsafed.  u  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask 
in  my  name  that  will  I  do.  If  ye  ask  me  anything 
in  my  name  that  (thing)  will  I  do.” 

So  much  for  the  privileges  of  the  filial  union, 
now  note  the  consequence  of  faithfulness  in  these 
relations.  The  more  we  use  our  privileges  the 
higher  the  felt  liberty  of  prayer  ascends.  “  If  ye 
abide  in  me  and  my  words  abide  in  you,  ask  what¬ 
soever  ye  will  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you.” 
(John  xv.  7.) 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  301 

But  further,  all  the  joy  and  comfort  of  their  past 
visible  fellowship  with  Christ  was  to  be  reproduced 
in  the  new  immediate  contact  with  the  Father. 
You  are  in  the  travail  hour  just  now,  the  anguish 
of  parting  is  in  your  hearts.  But  all  that  will  pass 
away  in  a  new  presence  and  an  imperishable  joy. 
“  In  that  day  it  may  be  ye  shall  ask  Me  no 
question.  But  if  ye  shall  ask  anything  of  My 
Father,  He  will  give  it  you  in  My  name.”  The 
old  free  unrestrained  converse  of  Master  and 
disciples  by  the  lake  or  on  Hermon  was  being 
transferred  to  the  throne  and  might  be  continually 
enjoyed  from  thence.  “  Hitherto  ye  have  asked 
nothing  in  My  name  :  ask,  and  ye  shall  receive,  that 
your  joy  may  be  fulfilled.”  (John  xvi.  23,  24.) 

(4)  And  now  as  to  the  answer  of  the  Father. 
In  another  connection  we  have  already  pointed  out 
that  there  is  no  more  beautiful  exposition  of  the 
liberty  and  joy  of  spiritual  religion  than  in  Matt.  vi. 
The  children  are  to  do  alms,  pray,  fast,  as  unto 
their  Father,  dead  to  the  inverted  aims  of  the 
Pharisees.  And  as  their  souls  thus  blossomed  out 
in  secret  to  the  Father’s  eye  alone,  the  Father 
who  seeth  in  secret,  who  can  sound  all  depths  of 
motive,  and  pursue  every  ramification  of  con¬ 
sequence,  would  reward  them  openly.  Every 
answer  would  be  a  triumph  of  the  divine  Father¬ 
hood — the  perfect  expression  of  His  tenderness 
and  wisdom,  in  the  same  way  as  in  his  own  creature 


302  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

place  a  good  human  father  tries  to  meet  the  aspira¬ 
tions  and  desires  of  his  boy. 

III.  But  in  prayer  there  is  a  more  distinctive 
and  pronounced  element  still,  union  with  Christ 
for  the  express  end  of  carrying  out  His  Kingdom. 
Here  in  addition  to  filial  relations  to  the  Father 
we  have  what,  without  offence,  we  may  call  a 
business  relation  to  Christ,  because  we  are  instru¬ 
ments  for  the  execution  of  His  purposes  among 
men. 

(1)  All  that  has  been  adduced  under  (3)  of 
the  last  general  head  applies  equally  to  this 
further  position.  Then  we  expounded  several 
passages  to  open  up  the  fulness  and  importance 
of  the  prayer-life  to  which  we  are  called.  But  it 
is  of  importance  to  bring  out  into  prominence  this 
fact  that  great  interests  are  committed  to  our  care. 
Christ  has  gone  to  the  Father.  As  the  Father 
sent  Jesus,  so  He  sent  us.  We  are  here  to 
fulfil  His  purpose.  Into  our  utterly  feeble  hands 
are  put  the  carrying  out  of  His  works  in  pursuance 
of  the  ends  of  His  sacrifice,  yea  of  greater  works 
in  measure  and  outward  result  than  He  achieved. 
And  so  Jesus  makes  express  definite  and  reliable 
provision  for  the  fulfilment  of  our  task. 

(2)  But  Jesus  goes  further,  in  another  passage 
He  insists  most  impressively  on  His  sovereignty  in 
calling  us  into  the  service  of  the  Gospel.  Ye  did 
not  choose  me,  I  chose  you  for  this  great  work. 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  303 

You  can  give  no  other  account  of  how  you  happen 
to  be  engaged  in  it  than  this,  my  hand  has  been  laid 
upon  you.  You  remember  how  after  a  night  of 
prayer  I  came  down  and  one  by  one  called  you,  and 
you  stood  there  committed  to  a  service,  not  which 
you  chose  but  which  I  chose  for  you.  (John  xv. 
16.) 

Before  drawing  out  further  the  teaching  of  this 
wonderful  passage,  let  us  revert  to  Lecture  VI.  in 
which  we  dealt  with  the  subjects  of  our  ministry. 
There  we  saw  that  the  continuity  of  the  Church  lay 
in  the  continuous  presence  of  Christ  in  and  with  her 
successive  generations.  He  called  the  apostles  for 
the  exceptional  service  which  in  their  day  they 
rendered,  and  in  like  manner  according  to  the 
needs  of  each  generation,  He  calls  those  who  may 
be  His  ministers  to  men.  And  what  He  says  in 
this  passage  of  the  apostles,  is  applicable  equally 
to  those  who  are  called  of  Him,  and  in  His  hand 
for  the  work  of  the  present  day. 

“I  have  chosen  you” — our  Lord  says.  But 
more,  I  appointed  or  ordained  you  for  a  specific 
ministry,  that  you  should  go  out  into  the  sphere 
of  my  appointment,  and  bring  forth  fruit  as  I  had 
determined,  and  that  your  fruit  should  remain, 
become  a  permanent  and  constituent  outcome  of 
the  kingdom.  And  I  did  this,  put  you  in  such  a 
position  of  definite  responsibility,  hinged  the  ad¬ 
vancement  of  my  kingdom  on  your  service,  in  virtue 


3o4  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


of  another  consideration  present  to  my  mind,  to 
bring  into  operation  another  provision  that  in  your 
utter  need  you  may  have  God  to  lean  upon  and 
that  whatsoever  you  (so  shut  up  and  committed  to 
my  service)  shall  ask,  He  may  give  unto  you. 
Thus  we  can  go  to  the  Father  with  an  irresistible 
plea.  Must  He  not  help  forward  His  Kingdom 
which  He  has  sent  Christ  to  found,  for  whose 
advancement  Christ  has  chosen  us  and  appointed 
our  course  ?  We  come  in  Christ’s  name,  as  if  in 
His  place  and  charged  with  His  authority  to  claim 
fulfilment. 

(3)  To  complete  our  view  of  this  aspect  of  the 
theme  we  may  take  the  concluding  part  of  a 
passage  whose  earlier  section  we  have  already 
studied.  (John  xvi.  26,  27.)  He  has  been  speak¬ 
ing  of  a  time  when  spiritual  truths  shall  have  been 
made  plain  in  His  death  and  resurrection.  Then 
He  says  u  Ye  shall  ask  in  My  Name.”  Prayer  in 
My  Name  shall  be  fully  established.  And  this 
will  be  the  foundation  of  a  close  and  full  sympathy. 
Do  not  suppose  that  you  will  be  kept  at  arm’s 
length  except  and  in  so  far  as  I  may  make  request 
for  you.  You  will  have  your  standing  and  personal 
acceptance  in  Me,  but  more  and  more  will  the 
Father  be  personally  drawn  out  to  you  for  what 
of  Me  He  has  found  in  you.  You  love  Me  and 
are  standing  for  Me  before  an  unbelieving  world. 
You  believe  that  I  came  forth  from  God,  and  are 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  305 

maintaining  the  Christian  view  before  a  world  in 
the  wicked  one.  Being  knit  to  you,  as  factors  in 
His  Kingdom,  forces  for  truth  and  righteousness, 
the  heart  of  the  Father  will  go  out  to  you. 

These  are  wonderful  statements,  and  if  we 
would  be  powerful  witnesses,  we  must  take  them 
as  actual  facts,  presume  upon  them  in  every  plan 
we  lay,  reckon  upon  them  as  a  manufacturer 
reckons  upon  the  driving  power  of  his  engines, 
and  keep  them  in  meditation  ever  before  our 
minds  as  elements  which  must  enter  into  all 
spiritual  service  as  they  must  contribute  to  all 
spiritual  success. 

In  the  particulars  that  remain  we  shall  see 
from  several  points  of  view  the  scope  of  this 
prayer  life. 

IV.  In  such  intercourse  of  prayer  with  our 
Father  we  can  expect,  that  overruling  all  hostility 
He  will  make  every  event  turn  out  for  good, 
secure  that  every  loss  shall  issue  in  a  wider  gain, 
cause  every  extremity  to  become  the  occasion  of 
a  fuller  unfolding  of  His  counsel,  and  of  clearer 
forecast  regarding  the  coming  time. 

There  are  several  passages  which  communicate 
this  vast  confidence,  but  the  most  comprehensive 
is  to  be  found  in  John  xvi.  1-14.  Under  the  follow¬ 
ing  heads  we  shall  bring  out  the  chief  points  of 
this  promise. 

(1)  In  an  irrational  fear  they  were  bemoaning 

u 


30 6  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


His  departure.  And  so  He  draws  aside  the  veil 
of  the  future  to  discover  the  perils  of  witness 
which  lay  before  them.  A  visible  human  Lord 
would  no  longer  meet  the  needs  of  a  vaster  arena 
and  a  more  subtle  and  trying  situation.  “It  is 
expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away,”  that  this 
Comforter  may  come ;  and  note  in  what  respects 
His  coming  would  advantage  believers. 

(2)  Sent  from  the  Lord  to  meet  the  new 
emergency,  His  activities  can  widen  with  the 
widening  area  of  the  Church.  He  can  and  shall 
fill  the  world  with  His  witness.  Then  He  has 
a  subtle  power  of  carrying  the  witness  home. 
Working  with  the  truth  and  every  reflection  of 
the  truth,  in  character  and  influence,  He  can 
follow  the  truth  into  the  soul,  give  it  vividness  in 
the  deeps  of  the  being,  awaken  every  memory 
that  might  strengthen  and  support  the  impression, 
move  on  the  will  and  so  convict  the  soul,  summon 
it  to  the  bar  of  an  aroused  conscience,  and  win  a 
verdict  from  the  man  against  himself. 

And  this  extraordinary  power  of  the  Spirit  to 
which  every  human  being  lies  exposed,  as  the 
earth  lies  open  to  the  sun,  is  not  confined  to  the 
tracking  and  exposure  of  sin.  He  can  make  the 
true  ideal  of  man  live  before  his  inner  eye,  in 
the  ideal  righteous  career  of  Christ.  And  more, 
He  can  so  impress  the  man  with  the  supremacy 
of  right,  and  the  moral  issues  of  life  that  He  will 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  307 


see  everything  moving  on  to  a  final  judgment. 
What  a  power  working  secretly  with  the  servants 
of  Christ,  making  them  powerful  in  their  seeming 
weakness  beyond  all  human  measures.  The 
witness  of  Christ  would  be  revivified  in  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit,  and  not  at  one  point  but 
simultaneously  in  myriads  of  souls  all  over  the 
world. 

(3)  But  beyond  and  above  this  as  age  followed 

age,  the  Holy  Spirit  amid  the  exigencies  of  each 
new  time,  in  order  to  equip  faithful  servants  for 
fresh  opportunities,  would  carry  them  further  and 
further  into  the  meaning  and  fulness  of  revelation, 
guiding  into  a  practical  understanding  as  the  need 
arose  (v.  13).  And  so,  while  according  to 

another  statement,  revelation  is  complete;  “All 
things  that  I  have  heard  of  my  Father  I  have 
made  known  unto  you”  (John  xv.  15),  yet  in  the 
sense  of  opening  its  fulness,  defining  its  doctrines 
and  applying  its  lessons,  Jesus  has  had  and  still 
has  yet  many  things  to  say,  that  we  cannot  bear 
now  (v.  12). 

(4)  And  just  because  the  Holy  Spirit  is  in  the 
Church,  carrying  prayerful  and  believing  men 
further  and  further  into  the  heart  of  revelation — 
not  speaking  of  Himself,  but  applying  to  life  and 
need  the  principles  of  revelation,  believers  on  the 
ground  of  these  principles  can  so  forecast  the 
issues  of  the  present  that  they  have  the  clues  to 


3o8  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

the  coming  time.  Christ  shows  them  things  to 
come.  How  true  that  is,  for  while  an  inert 
Church  out  of  contact  with  the  living  God  is  the 
most  stereotyped  of  all  institutions,  a  spirit- 
quickened  Church  has  fruitful  outlooks  and  aspira¬ 
tions  towards  each  new  age.  In  her  missions  the 
Church  woke  to  the  importance  of  attaching  the 
heathen  peoples  to  Christendom,  almost  a  century 
before  the  nations  sought,  by  spheres  of  influence, 
to  attach  them  to  civilization. 

V.  But  the  testimony  of  Jesus  goes  further. 
Because  these  great  words  of  His  which  we  are 
now  to  consider  have  been  diverted  and  perverted 
from  their  true  spiritual  aim,  they  are  not  to  be 
set  aside.  He  is  not  giving  to  an  external  and 
historical  organization — in  the  sense  of  making 
over  legal  rights  and  properties ;  to  have  and  to  hold 
independently  of  character  or  spirit, — the  blessings 
mentioned  in  these  words.  Christ  gives  nothing 
whatever  on  that  footing.  The  whole  conception 
is  foreign  to  the  spirit  and  aim  of  His  gospel. 
He  is  showing  how,  where  there  is  spiritual  vision 
and  capacity  in  his  people,  God  is  willing  to  lean 
on  and  commit  His  power  to,  and  confirm  and 
establish  the  action  of,  His  people.  It  all  depends 
on  their  receptivity  and  response.  The  Peter  to 
whom  the  great  words  of  Matt.  xvi.  17-19  are 
addressed,  is  stigmatized  as  Satan  ere  the  day  be 
done.  And  the  words  about  binding  and  loosing 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  309 

spoken  to  Peter,  are  at  Matt,  xviii.  18  repeated 
to  the  Apostles. 

The  principle  of  all  such  utterances  is  found  in 
the  divine  willingness  to  commit  Himself  to  the 
heart-whole  witness  of  His  servants  in  association 
with  Himself.  The  nucleus  of  this  class  of  state¬ 
ments  is  found  in  Matt,  xviii.  19.  Taking  the 
church  or  Christian  fellowship  in  the  irreducible 
minimum  of  two — Jesus  says  “if  two  of  you  shall 
agree  on  earth  as  touching  anything  that  they  shall 
ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them  of  My  Father  who 
is  in  heaven.”  Here  it  is  fellowship,  agreement 
on  a  God-glorifying  aim  that  gives  their  petition 
its  power.  Because  where  there  are  two  thus 
united  for  God’s  glory,  there  are  three.  There 
am  I  in  the  midst  of  them.  (v.  20.) 

And  how  far  does  that  power  go?  Notice  it 
is  not  a  magical  power  which  can  be  bought  and 
sold,  having  a  property  value.  It  is  not  something 
perfect  and  absolute,  but  as  befitting  human  agents, 
real,  practical  and  helpful.  We  have  to  receive 
men  and  women  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Church. 
We  have  to  commit  bodies  of  believers  by  courses  of 
action  proposed,  accepted,  and  executed,  and  these 
along  many  lines.  We  are  called  at  times  to 
dissolve  censures,  to  relax  restraints,  break  down 
limits,  form  larger  fellowships  than  seemed  possible 
or  even  desirable  in  an  earlier  day.  Are  all  these 
responsible  actions  to  have  only  a  human  validity  ? 


3io  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

No!  In  no  actions  are  believers  more  distinctly 
conscious  of  the  presence  and  guidance  of  the 
living  God.  “  It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  to  us,”  wrote  the  Apostles  in  their  first  circular 
letter  to  the  Churches.  (Acts  xv.  28.) 

And  our  Lord  would  have  his  disciples  go 
forward  to  all  such  acts,  conscious  that  God  is  with 
them  in  these  ;  and  as  with  single  minds  they  serve 
their  Lord  they  shall  have  their  decisions  con¬ 
firmed  and  established.  u  What  things  soever  ye 
shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven,  and 
what  things  soever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be 
loosed  in  heaven.”  (Matt,  xviii.  18.)  In  the  same 
spirit  should  we  interpret  even  the  great  passage 
about  the  keys  (Matt.  xvi.  19),  and  the  other  in 
John  (xx.  23):  “Whosesoever  sins  ye  remit  they 
are  remitted  unto  them,  and  whosesoever  sins  ye 
retain  they  are  retained.”  These  are  not  miracu¬ 
lous  endowments  conferred  on  a  priest  to  be 
wielded  like  a  sceptre  with  autocratic  power. 
But  these  are  heights  of  grace  reached  by  conse¬ 
crated  servants  in  which  they  can  so  interpret  the 
mind  of  God  to  needy  souls  and  in  respect  of  their 
need,  that  their  words  carry  an  illumination  and 
decisiveness  that  are  final  to  the  recipients.  God 
has  spoken  for  them,  in  his  servants. 

Surely  nothing  is  more  fitted  to  impress  servants 
of  Christ  with  the  responsible  character  of  their 
position,  or  to  rouse  and  maintain  a  spirit  of  fervent 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  3 1 1 

intercessory  prayer!  It  is  under  the  spell  of  just 
such  considerations  that  the  common  ministry  has 
at  times  become  a  thing  of  stupendous  power, 
and  communities  have  lived  as  under  the  shadow 
of  God.  And  marvellous  to  think,  such  possi¬ 
bilities  lie  behind  our  ministry  every  hour. 

VI.  We  cannot  understand  the  full  scope  of 
intercessory  prayer  until  we  explore  another 
dimension.  Some  one  was  bemoaning  to  Daniel 
Webster  the  congestion  of  modern  professional 
life,  when  he  uttered  the  striking  saying,  “  there  is 
always  room  at  the  top.”  And  so  whatever  be  the 
vast  scope  of  prayer,  covering  all  the  interests  of 
a  Christian  worker,  the  chief  dimension  is  upward. 
u  According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you.”  (Matt.  ix. 
29.)  And  more  strikingly,  u  O  woman,  great  is  thy 
faith  :  be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt.”  (Matt.  xy. 
28.)  The  more  we  grow  in  capacity,  submission, 
love,  we  become  organs  through  whom  God  can 
and  will  express  Himself,  not  only  in  larger 
measure  but  on  higher  planes.  True,  God  is 
sovereign  through  all  this  ministry  of  intercession. 
It  is  according  to  His  estimate  that  the  answer  in 
open  reward  is  given.  Here  is  the  supreme  trial 
and  testing  of  the  prayer  life,  for  His  hearing, 
while  of  grace,  is,  in  its  visible  manifestation,  the 
peculiar  crown  of  His  holy  judgment,  electing  to 
use  us  on  such  and  such  levels,  and  in  such  and 
such  measures. 


312  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


Instead  of  historical  proofs  which  lie  in  numbers 
to  our  hands,  I  shall  take  one  illuminative  instance 
of  this  law  from  our  Master’s  words.  In  perverse 
mood  the  Jews  have  been  wilfully  misunderstand¬ 
ing  the  most  solemn  communications  of  Christ. 
When  He  spoke  of  going  to  the  Father,  they 
coarsely  queried  “Is  He  going  to  kill  Himself?” 
In  connection  with  this  we  have  a  wonderful  self¬ 
revelation  of  our  Lord’s  inner  life.  (Johnviii.  28-29.) 
First  we  shall  take  our  Lord’s  sense  of  the 
Father’s  nearness  to  Him.  He  that  sent  Me  is 
with  Me  (v.  29.)  Remember  these  were  con¬ 
scious  feelings  of  a  human  heart,  conceived  in  a 
human  mind.  They  are  not  beyond  what  in  feeble 
measure,  and  with  some  trace  of  imperfection,  we 
may  feel  on  our  human  level,  though  they  are  here 
associated  with  the  surrender  of  the  divine  Son. 
They  are  drawn  from  Him  by  the  cruelty  of  His 
questioners.  Notice  further  the  Son’s  sense  of 
perfect  oneness  with  the  Father  in  voluntary 
obedience.  u  1  do  always  the  things  that  are 
pleasing  to  Him.”  And  from  the  consciousness 
of  a  will  perfectly  open  like  a  flower  to  the  will  of 
the  Father,  rose  up  the  unquenchable  sense  of  the 
answer  which  God  would  certainly  give  to  a  life  that 
was  a  prayer,  to  the  prayer  of  His  perfect  consecra¬ 
tion.  Look  how  He  rolled  it  out  over  the  quailing 
faces  of  His  foes.  “When  ye  have  lifted  up  the 
Son  of  Man,  then  shall  ye  know  that  I  am,  and  I  do 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  3 1 3 

nothing  of  Myself.”  In  that  moment  He  saw  the 
glory  of  His  self-revelation,  in  resurrection  and 
ascension  and  Pentecost,  demonstrating  His  person 
and  mission.  On  that  level,  to  that  height  of  power 
was  God  going  to  answer  His  faith.  “According 
to  your  faith,  so  be  it  unto  you.”  “If  ye  had 
faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed  ye  might  say  unto 
this  sycamore  tree,  be  thou  plucked  up  by  the  root 
and  be  thou  planted  in  the  sea,  and  it  should  obey 
you.”  (Luke  xvii.  6.)  But  not  only  are  the  rooted 
forces  of  life  within  the  dominion  of  faith,  when 
God  is  pleased  to  honour  that  trust  for  His  glory. 
Nothing  shall  be  impossible  unto  you,  not  even 
the  material  frame  of  nature — this  mountain  shall 
remove  to  yonder  place.  (Matt.  xvii.  20.) 

And  God  gives  even  to  men,  who  have  come 
into  this  wholeness  of  fellowship,  immovable 
confidence  in  the  fulfilment  of  promises  wholly 
beyond  human  impossibility.  We  have  but  to 
remember  Abraham,  Gideon,  Jonathan,  Jeremiah, 
Paul,  and  among  the  moderns,  Morrison  of 
China,  Mackay  of  Uganda,  George  Muller,  and 
multitudes  beside. 

VII.  And  now  along  this  line  let  us  consider 
very  briefly  the  mystery  of  importunity.  That  we 
are  required  to  continue  instant  in  prayer  is  a  fact 
of  experience.  And  our  importunate  continuance 
is  of  such  importance  that  out  of  His  small  sheaf 
of  parables,  our  Lord  devotes  two  to  explain  and 


3i4  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


illustrate  it.  These  are  the  Friend  at  Midnight 
(Luke  xi.  5-9)  and  the  Unjust  Judge  (Luke 
xviii.  1-8). 

In  both  instances  persons  go  aside  from  their 
normal  course — not  readily  but  after  some  con¬ 
straint  ;  and  in  both  cases  what  avails  to  secure 
this  is  the  importunity  of  conscious  need.  In  the 
former  case,  the  exceptional  element  lies  in  the 
circumstances — midnight,  the  locked  door,  being 
in  bed.  These  tend  to  hinder  one  otherwise  pre¬ 
disposed  to  help.  On  the  other  hand  in  the  second 
parable  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  man  from  whom 
help  is  besought.  What  is  asked  is  that  he  go 
aside  from  a  formed  character  to  act  against  the 
reigning  spirit  of  his  life,  for  an  end  that  normally 
would  have  no  weight  with  him,  doing  justice  to 
a  poor  widow. 

Is  it  not  plain  what  the  a  fortiori  of  this 
argument  is  ?  If  a  friend  will  surmount  incon¬ 
venience  to  help  one  pleading  and  continuing  to 
plead  necessity,  if  a  man  shut  up  even  to  a  wrong 
line  of  action  will  rise  above  himself  upon  occasion 
at  the  cry  of  age  and  misfortune,  will  not  God 
yield  to  such  importunity  ?  Ay,  but  an  objector 
rejoins,  the  need  for  importunity  arises  among 
men  because  of  human  shortsightedness  and  evil. 
But  in  the  realm  of  an  omniscient  God  should 
there  be  room  for  this  ? 

The  sufficient  answer  is  found  in  these  con- 


PRAYER  AND  THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  3 1 5 


siderations.  God  has  many  kingdoms  in  the 
dispensation  of  time,  and  each  with  its  own  proper 
laws,  the  kingdom  of  the  inorganic,  the  kingdom 
of  life,  the  kingdom  of  mind.  And  so  He  has  a 
common  kingdom  of  providential  overrule  for  men 
as  they  are  in  this  world.  And  this  kingdom  has 
its  own  rules  or  fitnesses  of  things  from  which  a 
wise  ruler  will  not  go.  But  if  from  some  higher 
ground  of  purpose,  exceptional  reason  or  force  come 
in,  God  may  modify  His  plans.  The  great  biblical 
instance  of  this  is  in  Genesis  xviii.  16,  etc.  God 
is  moving  on  to  smite  Sodom.  But  He  has  in 
Abraham  one  who  is  working  with  Him  to  higher 
ends  of  the  kingdom,  and  so  Jehovah  pauses  and 
makes  room  for  prayer  to  come  in,  if  haply  prayer 
might  open  the  way  to  a  loftier  solution.  And 
the  reason  was,  God  had  in  Abraham  one  on  whom 
He  could  depend,  (v.  18-19.)  God  is  continually 
open  to  take  the  higher  line  if  there  are  those 
pressing  for  it  by  whom  He  can  carry  His  purpose 
out.  What  possible  destinies  have  hung  above 
individuals  and  nations,  if  faith  had  but  prevailed  ? 
u  And  when  He  was  come  near,  He  beheld  the  city 
and  wept  over  it,  saying,  If  thou  hadst  known, 
even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy  day,  the  things 
which  belong  unto  thy  peace  !  but  now  they  are 
hid  from  thine  eyes.”  (Luke  xix.  41,  42.) 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  AS  A 
MOTIVE  FOR  THE  PRESENT 


I 


XII 

CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  AS  A 
MOTIVE  FOR  THE  PRESENT 

We  are  bringing  the  practical  aspects  of  Christ’s 
ministry  which  we  have  been  studying,  to  a  focus, 
in  this  austere  yet  fascinating  subject.  Our 
patient  effort  to  study  Jesus  as  a  missionary  to 
His  own  generation,  is  reaching  a  natural  termina¬ 
tion  in  the  subject  of  this  closing  lecture.  How¬ 
ever  reluctant  one  might  be,  from  inability  to  deal 
adequately  with  so  perplexed  a  theme,  yet  it 
would  be  impossible  to  set  aside  the  charge  of 
unfaithfulness,  not  to  say  of  moral  cowardice,  if 
one  did  not  carry  out  to  its  unending  issues  the 
scope  and  burden  of  Christ’s  message.  So  far 
from  being  confined  within  earthly  horizons,  in 
the  whole  movement  of  His  teaching,  our  Lord 
goes  up  and  out  to  the  unseen.  He  never  over¬ 
looks  for  a  moment  the  immense  outcomes  and 
issues  of  His  ministry.  As  we  saw  in  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  Lecture  IX.,  He  came  to  break  up  the 
moral  stagnation  of  the  world,  kindling  the  fire  of 
conflicting  moral  ideals,  as  men  drew  to  or  away 

319 


320  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


from  His  perfect  example ;  gathering  power  in 
the  hands  of  nations  as  they  grew  up  into  His 
light ;  by  them  effacing  the  lower  and  less  respon¬ 
sive  peoples,  and  turning  apostate  nations  into  way- 
marks  and  beacons,  like  the  withered  fig-tree. 

That  whole  movement  covering  history  is  how¬ 
ever  but  the  earthly  development  of  an  influence 
and  issues  that  are  unending.  The  final  issue  of 
the  human  race  is  raised  for  settlement  in  Christ’s 
mission.  Human  destiny  hangs  on  the  acceptance 
or  rejection  of  the  Son  of  God.  Time  ends  in  an 
irrevocable  separation  of  righteous  and  wicked,  in 
the  righteous  shining  forth  as  the  Son  in  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Father.  (Matt.  xiii.  41-43.) 
And  eternity  begins  in  this  manifestation  of  the 
sons  of  God  and  their  association  with  Christ  on 
His  throne,  to  behold  His  glory  and  share  His 
triumph. 

If  we  approach  this  consummation  from  the 
plane  of  present  fellowship  with  Christ,  and  the 
progress  thus  far  of  His  kingdom,  we  find  this  to 
be  a  stupendous  theme,  overwhelming  in  its  interest 
for  the  individual  and  the  world.  While  implicitly 
received  in  Christendom,  these  teachings  put  a 
sceptre  in  the  hands  of  the  Church  of  unquestioned 
potency.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  materialisa¬ 
tion  of  these  truths,  their  crude  and  grotesque 
exhibitions,  their  unspiritual  use,  and  the  tacit 
introduction  of  human  assumptions  to  fill  out  and 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  321 


coarsen  the  Bible  revelations,  have  had  the  effect  of 
raising  a  stone  wall  of  scepticism,  shutting  out  this 
whole  region  of  truth  from  the  serious  belief  of 
millions.  The  modern  generations  have  suffered 
exceedingly  from  having  been  thus  diverted  to  the 
pinfold  of  the  present,  and  from  losing  that  acute 
sense  of  the  magnitude  and  unending  issues  of 
existence  which  marked  some  earlier  ages. 

What  we  want  is  to  come  back  to  the  biblical 
standpoint,  to  recognise  mystery  where  it  still 
obtains,  not  to  push  the  communications  of  scripture 
beyond  their  true  import  and  bearing,  and  to  be 
very  earnest  in  seeking  the  point  of  view  from 
which,  and  the  lines  within  which  these  are  to  be 
viewed. 

Now  it  so  happens,  according  to  our  judgment, 
that  ours  is  the  standpoint  from  which  we  can  see  the 
native  force  and  precise  bearing  of  all  these  testi¬ 
monies  of  our  Lord.  We  have  been  studying  Him 
as  a  human  teacher  laying  Himself  out  to  meet  the 
men  of  His  own  generation,  we  have  been  content 
to  note  and  simply  open  up,  the  reigning  ideas  of 
His  immediate  mission.  We  have  unfolded  the 
plane  from  which  He  spoke,  the  distinctive  end  at 
which  He  aimed  in  the  case  of  every  man,  the  lines 
along  which  He  moved  to  the  realisation  of  His 
purpose ;  and  so  from  within  the  circuit  of  His 
own  thought  we  can  reach  out  to  what  were  with 
Him  the  foreseen  conclusions  of  His  mission. 


x 


322  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

No  more  remarkable  proof  could  be  given,  of  the 
way  in  which  general  tendencies  of  thought,  and 
favourite  points  of  view  can  blind  writers  and 
speakers  to  the  most  obvious  facts,  than  the  way 
in  which  the  predominant  drift  of  the  teaching  of 
our  Lord  is  being  hidden  behind  side  issues  and 
subordinate  points.  Christ  came  from  the  unseen 
and  was  moving  to  an  end  in  the  unseen,  through 
His  whole  earthly  activity.  This  master  idea  inter¬ 
penetrates  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  the 
septet  of  parables  in  Matt,  xiii.,  no  less  than  His 
discourse  of  resurrection  by  Lazarus’  grave,  and 
the  great  utterance  at  the  table  on  the  night 
preceding  the  crucifixion. 

But  further,  working  along  the  lines  which  we 
have  sketched,  we  can  see  the  immediate  end  of 
Christ  in  drawing  aside  the  veil  of  the  future. 
Those  discoveries  of  things  to  come,  are  brought 
in  as  motives  for  the  present.  He  would  drive 
home  the  importance  of  present  decision  and 
action,  by  unveiling  the  issues  of  conduct  in  the 
world  to  come. 

Without  further  preface,  then,  let  us  move  out 
from  the  present  so  as  to  see  where,  and  in  what 
form,  and  to  what  extent,  judgment  comes  in.  We 
shall  summarise  under  seven  heads  the  main  steps 
of  the  sequence. 

I.  Christ  sent  of  the  Father  came  to  raise  a 
fundamental  issue  in  humanity,  to  create  a  crisis  or 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  323 


judgment  of  opportunity,  for  the  whole  race.  We 
have  stated  this  as  a  leading  issue  of  Christ’s 
ministry  in  other  connections,  but  now  rapidly 
summarise  it  as  a  basis  for  what  is  to  follow. 
This  crisis  of  opportunity  may  be  thus  stated. 
Whatever  the  past  may  have  been,  if  men  are 
willing  now,  in  view  of  God  perfectly  discovered 
in  the  Son,  to  accept  this  Christ  as  the  way  to 
Him,  condemnation  is  annulled.  The  whole  question 
of  acceptance  with  God  is  settled,  never  to  be 
opened  again.  And  more,  on  the  basis  of  that 
union,  eternal  life  is  begun. 

Contrariwise,  seeing  that  the  reign  of  shadows 
is  at  an  end,  and  light  is  come  into  the  world — 
God  being  seen  as  He  is — if  men,  with  all  their 
sad  experience  of  sin,  reject  Him,  the  only  reason 
can  be,  that,  seeing  the  perfect  good,  they  love 
the  evil.  By  their  deliberate  action  they  write 
themselves  down  the  men  they  are — lovers  of  evil. 
And  since  no  higher  or  grander  illumination  can 
ever  come  to  them,  than  they  have  had  in  Christ, 
the  thing  is  settled  so  far  as  they  are  concerned — 
they  are  condemned  already.  If  ye  believe  not 
that  I  am  He,  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins.”  (John  iii. 
16-21.) 

II.  This  issue  is  final  as  a  matter  of  fact  as  well 
as  of  right — there  is  no  going  aside  from,  or 
getting  past  it.  That  must  front  every  man  to  the 
end  of  time.  And  for  this  reason,  in  the  great 


324  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


crisis  or  judgment  of  Calvary,  Christ  engaged  and 
exposed  and  broke  for  ever  the  whole  power  of 
evil.  Against  the  gathered  force  of  human  evil 
overwhelming  Him,  Christ  revealed  perfect  love 
and  holiness,  thrusting  the  vileness  of  evil  into 
eternal  self-discovery,  blighted  with  the  blight  of 
an  incurable  shame.  But  He  did  more.  He  dis¬ 
covered  behind  human  sin  a  viler  and  more  in¬ 
veterate  spirit,  urging  on  the  human  to  opposition, 
reaching  out  through  only  partially  conscious 
instruments  to  the  defeat  of  God’s  purpose  and 
the  crushing  of  God’s  messenger.  And  in  the 
moment  of  Satan’s  seeming  victory,  by  enduring 
the  worst  which  he  could  inflict,  He  broke  Satan’s 
power,  revealing  the  love  of  the  divine  heart  and 
the  glory  of  the  divine  holiness,  in  that  sacrifice 
and  salvation  by  which  He  opened  a  way  for  all 
men  to  God. 

III.  In  this  final  issue  all  partial  conflicts  and 
controversies  between  good  and  evil  are  gathered 
up  into  one  supreme  opposition  which  includes 
them  all, — the  very  essence  and  fountain  of  evil 
being  confronted  with  the  soul  and  spring  and 
essence  of  all  good.  Now  is  the  judgment  of 
this  world,  now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be 
cast  out  and  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me.  (John  xii.  31,  32.)  On 
this  issue  humanity  shall  take  sides,  and  judgment 
shall  be  given.  “Two  women  shall  be  grinding  at 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  325 


the  mill,  the  one  shall  be  taken  and  the  other  left. 
Watch  therefore  for  ye  know  not  what  hour  your 
Lord  doth  come.”  (Matt.  xxiy.  41,  42.) 

IV.  In  Christ’s  view,  that  issue  has  been  raised 
through  all  the  generations  of  the  past  not  only 
among  the  covenant  people,  but  among  the  heathen. 
The  men  of  Nineveh  had  it  raised  by  Jonah 
(Luke  xi.  32)  less  completely  raised,  and  only  for 
a  season,  but  when  they  saw  the  issue,  the  brutal 
egoism  of  their  heathenism  or  homage  to  the 
righteous  One,  they  repented.  In  the  dark,  men 
are  going  for  what  they  know  of  right,  or  are 
yielding  to  self.  And  so  when  at  the  last  they 
come  out  into  the  glare  of  judgment,  the  light  of 
Christ  will  search  them.  They  will  find  in  Him 
the  highest  expression  of  that  great  moral  and 
spiritual  alternative,  which,  more  dimly  and  con¬ 
fusedly,  faced  them,  and  will  take  their  places, 
as,  up  to  their  light,  they  chose  what  they  knew 
of  God,  or  fell  back  on  disobedience  or  selfishness. 
And  so  what  Christ  declared  (Matt.  xxv.  31)  is 
strictly  true.  u  When  the  Son  of  man  shall  come 
in  His  glory  .  .  .  before  Him  shall  be  gathered 
all  the  nations,  and  He  shall  separate  them  one  from 
the  other.”  He  has  raised  the  only  question 
understood  of  all  men.  God  has  a  witness  in  every 
man,  the  devil  has  a  hold  of  every  man.  And 
further,  He  has  raised  the  only  question  decisive  in 
regard  to  every  human  being,  to  settle  which  he 


326  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

exists  and  continues  in  the  world.  Our  increased 
acquaintance  with  all  peoples  and  races  through 
missionary  enterprise  confirms  these  facts.  And 
so  the  newest  thought  of  to-day  vindicates  the 
fullest  teaching  of  Scripture,  as  to  Christ  being 
the  universal  judge. 

V.  From  this  standpoint  of  Christ  as  the 
universal  Judge,  the  glory  of  His  saving  mission 
comes  home  to  us  with  new  and  stupendous 
power.  We  might  put  the  commission  of  Jesus 
to  His  servants  thus.  “  Servants  of  Mine,  I  have 
chosen  you  and  appointed  you  to  go  and  bring 
forth  fruit — Ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me  unto 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  But  you  shall 
not  go  anywhere,  to  one  single  man,  where  you 
will  not  find  an  understanding  of  My  conflict  with 
the  evil  one,  in  perfect  surrender  to  God.  They 
will  know  what  it  means,  by  the  conflict  going  on 
in  themselves.  Well,  I  commission  you  to  tell 
them  to  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  opened  a  way 
for  them  to  the  Father.  I  who  overcame  evil  in 
My  own  person,  can  overcome  it  in  them,  and  will 
overcome  it  in  them.  I  will  give  them  authority 
and  power  to  become  Sons  of  God.  And  besides, 
I  will  bring  them  out  into  the  clear  light,  where 
the  whole  meaning  of  this  fundamental  problem, 
and  everything  to  which  it  stands  related,  God  and 
man,  time  and  eternity,  duty  and  destiny,  shall 
be  clearly  seen.  “Iam  the  light  of  the  world,  he 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  327 

that  followeth  Me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness  but 
shall  have  the  light  of  life.”  (John  yiii.  12.) 

VI.  Christ’s  message  then  founds  on  certain 
natural  facts  of  universal  human  experience  (1) 
Man’s  free  will  and  responsibility,  (2)  the  witness 
of  God  in  every  human  soul,  (3)  the  conviction  on 
their  part  of  being  accountable  to  the  Author 
of  their  being.  In  view  of  these  He  unveils 
human  sin,  and  the  true  standard  of  the  divine 
judgment;  and  then  offers  to  undertake  the 
problem  for  all  men,  meeting  God  in  His  own 
sacrifice  and  bringing  us  in  Himself  into  perfect 
union  with  God.  His  Gospel  is  not  a  philosophy, 
an  ethical  culture  for  the  few,  but  a  divine  message 
for  mankind,  under  the  burden  of  their  native  and 
inalienable  responsibility.  Meet  God  they  must ; 
give  an  answer  of  some  sort  they  must,  that  is  the 
inevitable  destiny  fronting  all  human  beings,  and 
this  is  the  Gospel  by  which  they  can  be  saved  from 
themselves,  escape  thecorruption  that  is  in  the  world, 
and  positively  enter  into  the  fellowship  of  God. 

VII.  But  the  truth  is  not  simply  that  there 
shall  be  a  final  judgment  and  that  Christ  is  the 
alone  Redeemer  in  whom  we  shall  be  able  to  meet 
that  judgment  and  be  welcomed  into  the  reward  of 
blessedness.  Christ  Himself  shall  be  the  judge. 
(Matt.  xvi.  27.)  For  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in 
the  glory  of  His  Father  with  His  angels  ;  and  then 
shall  He  render  unto  every  man  according  to  His 


328  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


deeds.  The  standard  is  a  Person  ;  the  measure  is 
the  approximation  of  human  persons,  as  discovered 
in  the  whole  expression  of  their  doings,  towards 
this  ideal.  Temporal  history  has  ended,  the  out¬ 
ward  setting  of  place  and  conditions  in  this  life  is 
blotted  into  nothing.  The  hour  of  summation  has 
come  and  all  persons  are  gathered  before  the 
supreme  Person. 

Can  the  reader  fail  to  see  how  that  whole  view 
gave  urgency  and  point  to  His  message  and 
Mission  ?  And  when  we  go  forward  now  to  con¬ 
sider  the  great  lines  of  His  judgment  of  the 
world,  we  are  struck  by  the  same  outstanding  fact. 
He  has  no  desire  to  indulge  a  curious  inquisitive¬ 
ness  on  our  part,  by  giving  us  glimpses  of  the  other 
life  outside  human  conditions.  He  is  thinking  of 
the  present,  and  how  to  arouse  men  in  the  present, 
and  He  interprets  the  eternal  issues  into  a 
language  of  time,  which  may  produce  the  proper 
moral  impression.  And  Fie  specially  aims  so  to 
throw  the  net  of  judgment  around  the  exit  of 
life  that  every  one  shall  be  caught  in  His  own 
special  mesh  of  responsibility.  Let  us  look  at 
these  vie  ws  of  judgment  in  relation. 

(i)  In  the  widest  of  all  (Matt.  xxv.  1 6),  this 
plain  all  embracing  issue  is  set  up.  Has  the 
law  of  the  common  everyday  life  been  positive 
service  as  unto  Me,  or  unto  others  for  My  sake, 
or  for  what  of  My  truth  and  love  they  showed  in 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  329 


word  and  deed  ?  Or,  whatever  other  elements 
may  have  marked  the  life,  has  that  element  been 
lacking — has  there  been  no  motive  other  than  self, 
no  unselfish  love,  no  joy  in  meeting  need,  as 
having  been  visited  with  love,  no  perception  that 
thus  return  was  being  made  for  love  received  ? 
Can  Christ  find  nothing  akin  to  Himself,  but  only 
the  pride  of  egoism,  the  wrong  of  self-will,  the 
trampling  lust  of  selfish  possession,  which  are  the 
curse  of  being,  the  soul  of  disintegration  and  divis¬ 
ion,  and  which  fit  their  subjects  for  association  only 
with  the  alien  and  rebel  forces  of  the  universe. 

(2)  But  man  is  not  only  an  existence,  He  is  a 
potency.  He  has  been  crowned  with  endowments 
for  a  career  of  service,  and  there  is  no  getting  to 
the  bottom  of  what  he  is,  until  you  ask  what  he 
has  done  with  his  talent.  Has  this  gift  been  a 
trust  to  be  used  for  God,  or  a  possession  to  be 
selfishly  enjoyed  for  his  own  personal  advantage? 
(Matt.  xxv.  14.)  This  strikes  deeper.  Most 
men  are  ready  to  allow  that  conduct  will  be 
judged ;  but  that  qualities  which  are  so  specially 
our  own,  as  our  talents,  our  distinguishing  gifts, 
on  which  we  pride  ourselves  and  for  which  we 
expect  place  and  consideration  from  our  fellows, 
that  these  should  be  looked  upon  as  trusts,  com¬ 
mitted  to  our  care,  for  the  right  and  full  use  of 
which  we  are  responsible,  is  a  thought  which  does 
not  come  easy  even  to  Christian  men. 


330  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

Those  two  first  lines  of  judgment  touch  men  as 
men,  whether  Christian  or  not  Christian,  equally 
applicable  to  both.  Now  follow  two  which  have 
special  reference  to  those  who  are  within  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

(3)  The  servants  of  Christ  have  each  received  a 
pound — a  common  dower  of  grace,  with  the  command 
to  occupy  till  He  come.  And  so  there  arises  the 
special  question,  has  this  gift  of  grace  conferred 
on  each  child, — this  common  spiritual  endowment, 
— been  put  to  usury,  and  if  so  in  what  measure 
for  Christ’s  glory?  (Luke  xix.  12-27.) 

(4)  What  has  been  the  goal  of  your  existence? 
Have  you  gone  on  the  assumption  that  Christ  was 
going  to  triumph  ?  Has  His  return  been  for  you 
the  goal  of  time  which  you  have  awaited  with  lit- 
up  lives,  fed  from  a  living  source  within  ? 

Such  very  briefly  and  summarily  given  is  Christ’s 
outlook  upon  the  Future.  He  sets  His  gospel  in 
that  environment  that  it  may  come  home  with 
power.  If  we  are  to  be  Christ’s  ministers,  we 
must  hold  that  world-view — we  must  use  all  the 
considerations  arising  out  of  it  to  weigh  with  men. 
If  we  disbelieve  all  this,  let  us  get  us  to  an  honest 
calling,  and  cease  to  juggle  or  play  fast  and  loose 
with  divine  verities.  If  we  are  afraid  or  shrink 
from  any  cause,  “  we  love  the  praise  of  men  more 
than  the  praise  of  God.” 

To  put  the  matter  more  widely,  such  is  the 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  331 

great  moral  and  spiritual  issue  to  which  the  whole 
world  of  humanity  is  moving.  We  are  in  progress, 
not  to  extinction,  or  if  to  disintegration  of  the 
perishable,  to  manifestation  of  man’s  immortal  part 
in  the  light  of  perfect  being,  that  each  may  go  to 
his  own  place  in  the  Eternity  to  be.  Such 
accordingly  is  our  mission  in  view  of  that 
stupendous  event,  the  climax  and  summation  of 
time.  What  a  solemnity  then  invests  our  ministry  ! 
What  issues  hang  on  its  faithful  discharge  !  When 
all  other  forms  of  human  service  cease,  because 
their  occasions  shall  have  been  utterly  taken 
away,  when  the  chief  labours  and  triumphs  of  time 
are  dissolved  into  nothing,  the  view  of  existence 
and  the  urgent  concerns  which  we  are  com¬ 
missioned  by  God  to  press,  will  stand  out  in 
solitary  prominence,  to  mankind,  dislodged  from 
their  earthly  nest,  awaiting  the  verdict  of  the 
Eternal  Son,  on  which  all  shall  depend. 

In  this  closing  chapter  we  are  dealing  with 
what  is  to  come,  with  a  consummation  out  of  all 
ordinary  experience,  as  unprecedented  and  ex¬ 
ceptional  at  the  goal,  as  creation  was  at  the 
beginning.  And  I  for  one  would  encourage  rather 
than  deprecate  the  caution  which  ventures  into 
such  regions  only  so  far  as  we  are  guided  by 
unmistakable  spiritual  analogy  from  the  present, 
and  by  express  testimonies  of  Scripture.  The 
spirit  which  builds  great  structures  of  hypothesis 


332  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 

from  insufficient  and  often  ill-apprehended  grounds, 
excites  the  imagination  without  strengthening  and 
educating  the  spiritual  life.  On  the  other  hand 
we  judge  it  a  course  equally  culpable  and  may-hap 
more  dangerous  to  refuse,  in  a  slavish  limitation 
to  present  truth,  to  entertain  well-authenticated 
statements  of  Scripture,  supported  by  the  whole 
drift  and  tendency  of  our  present  experience, 
which  yet  go  beyond  what  we  know. 

For  instance,  one  cannot  follow  the  course  of 
Christ’s  teaching  summarized  under  these  seven 
heads  just  given,  without  being  convinced  that 
they  all  hang  together,  the  earlier  implying  and 
indeed  paving  the  way  for  those  which  were  to 
follow.  The  judgment  unveiled  by  Christ,  is 
manifestly  adjusted  to  all  that  went  before,  being 
the  inevitable  outcome  of  the  great  new  season 
of  opportunity  which  He  came  to  bring  to  the 
sinful  sons  of  men.  Let  us  teach  these  practical 
truths  then  as  they  stand  revealed  to  our  spirits, 
press  these  issues  on  heart  and  conscience,  use 
them  as  motives  to  present  decision,  and  we  shall 
awaken  an  irresistible  response  in  human  hearts. 
This  is  the  very  fulcrum  on  which  our  message 
moves,  that  in  this  decision  about  Christ,  each 
man  is  brought  right  up  before  his  eternal  destiny. 
All  other  questions  run  into  this  central  and  all 
embracing  issue,  and  this,  how  I  stand  to  God 
in  His  Son,  determines  all. 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  333 


We  have  really  nothing  to  do  save  to  push 
that  fundamental  issue  as  the  supreme  truth  of 
being.  If  we  have  authority  from  Christ  for 
anything  we  have  it  for  this.  This  too  is  no 
speculation,  but  an  ethical  fact  to  which  our 
moral  natures  witness,  and  of  immense  practical 
importance.  And  further  when,  leaning  on  the 
testimony  of  Christ  and  upheld  by  the  convictions 
of  our  own  spiritual  natures,  we  unfold  these 
alternatives,  we  shall  come  to  see  the  elements 
of  mystery  which  envelop  this  whole  theme. 
For  direction  and  incentive  a  line  of  light  falls 
as  from  the  throne,  opening  up  the  pathway  of 
the  soul  to  the  eternal  goal.  But  when  we  would 
indulge  vain  curiosity,  we  are  met  on  every  side 
by  impenetrable  mystery. 

The  rough  and  ready  assumptions  of  limited 
human  judgment — which  in  recent  generations 
have  been  so  largely  used  to  discredit  and  set 
aside  this  sublime  department  of  truth — are 
unwarranted  and  unjustifiable.  We  must  never 
forget  that  the  issue  raised  by  Christ,  as  to 
whether  men  will  yield  to  God  in  Him,  is 
primarily  a  universal  human  instinct  and  issue. 
Although  man  as  sinful  has  obscured  the  witness 
of  God  within  him,  he  cannot  evade  in  some 
form,  the  question  whether  he  will  go  for  the 
highest  good  he  knows,  or  for  self.  Christ 
showed  Himself  a  world-saviour,  because  He 


334  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


struck  into  this  central  and  universal  instinct. 
He  simply  lifted  that  into  light,  unfolded  its  true 
scope,  and  brought  in  the  redemption  by  which 
men  might  come  to  God. 

Again,  who  of  us  can  tell  how  far  the  light  of 
Christ  has  travelled,  and  in  how  innumerable 
forms  the  rays  of  that  light  have  touched  into 
life  this  unquenchable  moral  instinct  of  man  ? 
Again  the  issue  is  the  simple  moral  issue  whether 
Christ  or  self  is  to  be  Lord  of  the  will.  And 
whilst  we  rejoice  in  the  numbers  who  are  un¬ 
ambiguously  on  the  side  of  Christ,  only  God 
Himself  can  discern,  amid  the  confusion  and 
wandering  of  innumerable  lives,  what  their  drift 
and  true  tendency  may  have  been.  To  step  for  a 
moment  aside  from  our  particular  field  of  enquiry, 
Paul,  superb  dogmatist  though  he  was,  in  great 
humility  of  heart  draws  what  we  might  call  a 
double  line  of  circumvallation  round, — not  the 
Kingdom — but  our  imperfect  human  conception 
of  the  Kingdom,  (i  Cor.  xii.  2.)  We  cannot  get 
further  than  this  u  Wherefore  I  give  you  to 
understand  ” — and  here  follows  the  outer  limit 
beyond  which  we  can  not  conceive  a  member 
of  the  Kingdom  to  exist.  uNo  man  speaking 
in  the  Spirit  calleth  Jesus  accursed.”  Then  He 
states  the  inner  limit  within  which  all  are  safe 
and  at  home.  uNo  man  can  call  Jesus  Christ 
Lord,  save  by  the  Holy  Ghost.”  But  between 


CHRIST’S  APPEAL  TO  THE  FUTURE  335 


these  two  limits,  in  this  imperfect  state,  amid  so 
manifold  degrees  of  maturity  and  immaturity,  it 
is  not  for  us  dogmatically  to  pronounce. 

And  then  last  and  most  important  of  all.  The 
vast  majority  of  humanity  are  on  the  other  side  of 
death,  in  another  scene  than  this.  At  this  point 
I  would  not  be  misunderstood.  Let  me  declare 
frankly,  and  at  the  outset,  I  can  lmd  nothing  to 
indicate  probation  in  another  world.  But  if  not 
a  scene  of  probation,  that  world  has  been,  is,  and 
will  be  a  sphere  of  crystallization,  where  all  the 
findings  of  time,  clear  and  obscure,  will  shine  out 
in  their  true  meaning  and  proportion,  and  lives  be 
developed  out  of  immaturity  into  completeness, 
along  the  line  they  had  chosen.  And  not  until 
human  history  in  both  branches  of  which  it  is 
composed,  runs  out  to  the  last  sand,  will  the  hour 
of  judgment  strike.  Who  can  forecast  the  moral 
spectacle  which  the  world  of  man  will  present, 
when  the  great  mass  from  the  other  side  of  death, 
and  only  a  remnant  from  the  derelict  ship  of  time, 
will  on  the  last  great  day  meet  at  the  throne. 

Do  not  mistake,  I  am  not  alleging  these  import¬ 
ant  considerations  to  draw  particular  inferences 
from  them.  For  myself  I  have  no  pleasure  in 
risky  conclusions,  but  only  in  the  sober  well- 
grounded  experiences  of  the  spiritual  life.  What 
I  want  is  to  block  out  that  effusive  sentimentalism, 
which  with  a  vast  parade  of  superior  spirituality, 


336  THE  MAGNETISM  OF  CHRIST 


has  discredited  for  millions  the  vital  truth  of  the 
divine  judgment,  and  the  inevitable  unending  issues 
to  which  all  character  and  conduct  must  come. 
The  man  who  strikes  at  that,  strikes  at  a  corner¬ 
stone  of  the  Christian  system,  and  weakens  the 
whole  frame.  We  have  not  to  do  with  this  or 
that  man’s  portraiture  of  the  place  of  woe,  with 
baseless  calculations  as  to  the  numbers  of  the 
saved  and  the  unsaved,  with  a  thousand  and  one 
questions  which  it  has  not  pleased  God  to  unveil. 
God  holds  these  in  His  own  hand,  and  surely  we 
can  trust  Him  to  vindicate  His  own  honour  when 
the  time  comes.  These  anxieties  about  what  men 
so  little  know,  these  passionate  protests  against 
something  which  is  so  largely  their  own  dream, 
these  wild  words  against  omnipotence — mere  un¬ 
disciplined  outbursts  of  human  feeling — have  done 
untold  mischief  in  throwing  men  back  into  a 
natural  security ;  and  in  closing  their  eyes  to  that 
great  principle  of  nature  and  of  grace — the  inevit¬ 
able  issue  of  conscience  and  of  Christ — that  “God 
hath  appointed  a  day  in  which  He  will  judge  the 
world,”  and  that  they  must  be  getting  ready,  here 
and  now,  to  endure  the  scrutiny  of  the  Highest 
and  Holiest  and  be  placed  for  eternity  as  that 
search  determines. 


FINIS. 


TURNBULL  AND  SPEARS,  PRINTERS.  EDINBURGH. 


Princeton  Theologica 


Seminary  Libraries 


012  01234  026G 


